Non-invasive left ventricular volume determination

• US 20060241376A1
• Filed: 04/23/2004
• Published: 10/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Breeuwer, Marcel, Noble, Nicholas Michael Ian
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,154 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/410
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30048 Heart; Cardiac
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/62 of area, perimeter, diameter or volume

Abstract

A method of and a computer readable medium comprising a program for calculating total left ventricular (LV) volume during a cardiac cycle. The LV volume is estimated using only endocardial contours in a cardiac 3D image that was acquired at end diastole (ED), i.e. the moment at which the heart is fully relaxed. These contours are manually specified or (semi-)automatically derived. Based on these contours and on the pixel intensity in all other images, the LV volume is estimated based on intensity variations within the area enclosed by the contours (ED LV blood pool). These variations are proportional to the change in size of the ventricle. Hence ventricle volume and other derivable cardiac functionality parameters as well as the phase in the cardiac cycle are derived. The 3D image is previously to the method captured by means of a device for imaging inside parts of a mammal body, such as Magnetic Resonance (MR), Computer Tomography (CT), Nuclear Medicine (NM) or Ultrasound (US) devices.

Claims

1. A method of determining total left ventricular (LV) interior volume during a cardiac cycle from a cardiac cine series, said method comprising the steps of:

delineating endocardial and epicardial contours of a left ventricle in all slices of said cine series at end-diastole (ED),

applying the endocardial contours delineated at ED to all phases of the cardiac cycle, and

calculating the total LV interior volume based on intensity values inside the endocardial contours delineated at ED.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising calculating a mean intensity for myocardium and blood voxels at ED based on the delineated endocardial and epicardial contours.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising using the mean intensities for compensating for myocardium enclosed in the endocardial contours delineated at ED during subsequent phases of the cardiac cycle.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the LV interior volume is calculated as

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cine series is a short-axis study of the heart consisting of multiple slices covering at least the left ventricle and multiple phases within the cardiac cycle.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the LV volume from cine sequences acquired at different stress levels, whereby the temporal behaviour of the heart as a function of increasing stress is determined.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said cine series is/are captured previously to said method on a device for imaging inside parts of a mammal body.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said device for imaging inside parts of a mammal body is a Magnetic Resonance (MR), Computer Tomography (CT), Nuclear Medicine (NM) or Ultrasound (US) device.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein an MRI study comprises Steady State Free Precession (SSFP) images.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising compensating motion of the heart.

11. A computer-readable medium (90) having embodied thereon a computer program for processing by a computer (91) for calculating total left ventricular (LV) volume during a cardiac cycle from a cine series, the computer program comprising:

a first code segment (92) for delineating endocardial and epicardial contours of a left ventricle in all slices of said cine series at end-diastole (ED),

a second code (93) segment for applying the endocardial contours delineated at ED to all phases of the cardiac cycle, and

a third code segment (94) for calculating the total LV volume based on intensity values inside the endocardial contours delineated at ED.

12. The computer-readable medium according to claim 11, wherein said first code segment automatically delineates the endocardial and epicardial contours.