Method and system for patient-specific modeling of blood flow

• US 10,179,030 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2012
• Issued: 01/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Heartflow Inc.
• Original Assignee: Heartflow Inc.
• Inventors: Taylor, Charles A., Fonte, Timothy A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brutus, Joel F
• Application Number:
  US13/658,739
• Publication Number:
  US 20130064438A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,275 Days
• Field of Search: 600407, 600410, 382128, 382130
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Abstract

Embodiments include a system for determining cardiovascular information for a patient. The system may include at least one computer system configured to receive patient-specific data regarding a geometry of the patient'"'"'s heart, and create a three-dimensional model representing at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s heart based on the patient-specific data. The at least one computer system may be further configured to create a physics-based model relating to a blood flow characteristic of the patient'"'"'s heart and determine a fractional flow reserve within the patient'"'"'s heart based on the three-dimensional model and the physics-based model.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

acquire non-invasively generated patient-specific anatomical data comprising information of at least one vessel of an imaging subject;

generate, using a processor, a three-dimensional geometric model from the patient-specific anatomical data, the three-dimensional geometric model comprising the at least one vessel;

determine anatomical information from the three-dimensional geometric model by generating a vessel tree by segmenting vessels in the three-dimensional geometric model from other anatomical structures contained therein;

perform a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on the three-dimensional geometric model to generate hemodynamic pressure information from the anatomical information based on, at least in part, a relative material density of wall tissue and a composition of wall tissue of at least a portion of the vessel tree;

receive non-invasively generated perfusion data of a tissue adjacent to the at least one vessel;

determine an indicia of a perfusion risk of the tissue affected by a plaque or stenotic lesion using the CFD analysis and the perfusion data;

output a visualization of the perfusion data on the three-dimensional geometric model in combination with the indicia of the perfusion risk of of the tissue; and

enable an assessment of a treatment option for treating the tissue by electronic modification of the three-dimensional geometric model.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause the computer to acquire the patient-specific anatomical data cause the computer to acquire patient-specific anatomical CT imaging data.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the instructions that cause the computer to acquire the patient-specific anatomical data cause the computer to:

acquire the patient-specific anatomical data at multiple phases of a cardiac cycle of the imaging subject.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2 wherein the instructions that cause the computer to receive the perfusion data cause the computer to receive perfusion data having a different imaging modality than CT imaging.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions that cause the computer to generate the vessel tree cause the computer to:

identify the plaque in the vessel tree; and

calculate hemodynamic pressure information corresponding to the plaque in the vessel tree.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

locate a vessel of interest based on one of the three-dimensional geometric model and the hemodynamic pressure information; and

locate a stenosis within the vessel of interest.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the instructions further cause the computer to:

display the vessel of interest to a user; and

receive a user input identifying a region of stenosis of the vessel of interest, the region of stenosis comprising the stenosis.

8. A method for estimating vascular hemodynamic information comprising:

acquiring non-invasively generated patient-specific anatomical data comprising information of at least one vessel of an imaging subject;

generating, using a processor, a three-dimensional geometric model from the patient-specific anatomical data, the three-dimensional geometric model comprising the at least one vessel;

determining anatomical information from the three-dimensional geometric model by generating a vessel tree by segmenting vessels in the three-dimensional geometric model from other anatomical structures contained therein;

performing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on the three-dimensional geometric model to generate hemodynamic pressure information from the anatomical information based on, at least in part, a relative material density of wall tissue and a composition of wall tissue of at least a portion of the vessel tree;

receiving non-invasively generated perfusion data of a tissue adjacent to the at least one vessel;

determining an indicia of a perfusion risk of the tissue affected by a plaque or stenotic lesion using the CFD analysis and the perfusion data;

outputting a visualization of the perfusion data on the three-dimensional geometric model in combination with the indicia of the perfusion risk of the tissue; and

enabling an assessment of a treatment option for treating the tissue by electronic modification of the three-dimensional geometric model.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein performing a CFD analysis on the three-dimensional geometric model to generate the hemodynamic pressure information further comprises:

acquiring a plurality of volumes of angiography data from the imaging subject via a coronary CT angiography exam.

10. A system for estimating vascular hemodynamic information, comprising:

a digital storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the computer system to perform a method for estimating vascular hemodynamic information; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform the method for estimating vascular hemodynamic information, the method comprising;

acquiring non-invasively generated patient-specific anatomical data comprising information of at least one vessel of an imaging subject;

generating, using a processor, a three-dimensional geometric model from the patient-specific anatomical data, the three-dimensional geometric model comprising the at least one vessel;

determining anatomical information from the three-dimensional geometric model by generating a vessel tree by segmenting vessels in the three-dimensional geometric model from other anatomical structures contained therein;

performing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on the three-dimensional geometric model to generate hemodynamic pressure information from the anatomical information based on, at least in part, a relative material density of wall tissue and a composition of wall tissue of at least a portion of the vessel tree;

receiving non-invasively generated perfusion data of a tissue adjacent to the at least one vessel;

determining an indicia of a perfusion risk of the tissue affected by a plaque or stenotic lesion using the CFD analysis and the perfusion data;

outputting a visualization of the perfusion data on the three-dimensional geometric model in combination with the indicia of the perfusion risk of the tissue; and

enabling an assessment of a treatment option for treating the tissue by electronic modification of the three-dimensional geometric model.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein acquiring the patient-specific anatomical data comprises:

acquiring the patient-specific anatomical data at multiple phases of a cardiac cycle of the imaging subject.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the processor is configured for determining the anatomical information, generating the vessel tree, and further configured for:

identifying the plaque in the vessel tree; and

calculating hemodynamic information corresponding to the identified plaque in the vessel tree.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the system further comprises a computer system disposed in communication with a computed tomography (CT) scanner.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the three-dimensional geometric model is a three-dimensional image volume derived from the patient-specific anatomic data.