System For The Determination Of Vessel Geometry And Flow Characteristics

• US 20080192887A1
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• 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: Weese, Juergen, Bredno, Joerg, Groth, Alexandra
• Granted Patent: US 7,738,626 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 378/41
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/481 involving the use of contrast agents
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/504 for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/003 Reconstruction from projections, e.g. tomography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10112 Digital tomosynthesis [DTS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10116 X-ray image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30104 Vascular flow; Blood flow; Perfusion
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2211/404 Angiography
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a system for the simultaneous reconstruction of the three-dimensional vessel geometry and the flow characteristics in a vessel system. According to one realization of the method, vessel segments (41) of a parametric models are fitted to differently oriented X-ray projections (P_l, P_k, P_N) of the vessel system that are generated during the passage of a bolus of contrast agent, wherein the fitting takes the imaged contrast agent dynamics and physiological a priori knowledge into account. In an alternative embodiment, the vessel geometry is reconstructed progressively along each vessel, wherein a new segment of a vessel is added based on the continuity of the vessel direction, vessel radius and reconstructed contrast agent dynamics.

Claims

1. Investigation system for the determination of the vessel geometry and the flow characteristics in a vessel system, comprising:

an X-ray device (10) for generating differently oriented projections of the vessel system;

a data processing unit (20) that is coupled to the X-ray device (10) and adapted to reconstruct the three-dimensional model of the vessel geometry and the flow characteristics based on a temporal sequence of differently oriented X-ray projections (P_l, P_k, P_N) of the vessel system generated during the passage of a bolus (31) of contrast agent, wherein the reconstruction of the vessel geometry is at least partially based on the imaged contrast agent dynamics caused by the bolus.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the data processing unit (20) is adapted to extract features from the sequence of X-ray projections (P_l, P_k, P_N) that are related to the vessel geometry and/or the contrast agent dynamics.

3. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that the data processing unit (20) comprises a parametric model of both the vessel geometry and the contrast agent dynamics.

4. The system according to claim 3, characterized in that the data processing unit (20) is adapted to reconstruct an instance of the model that fits both to the sequence of X-ray projections (P_l, P_k, P_N) and to plausibility rules for vessel geometry and/or contrast agent dynamics.

5. The system according to claim 3, characterized in that the parametric model comprises elements corresponding to local vessel segments and local contrast agent dynamics, wherein each of said elements is associated with a local score value.

6. The system according to claim 5, characterized in that the data processing unit (20) is adapted to reconstruct an instance of the model by determination of an optimal path with respect to the local score values.

7. The system according to claim 4, characterized in that the data processing unit (20) is adapted to reconstruct the flow characteristics and the vessel geometry in three dimensions progressively along the vessels.

8. The system according to claim 3, characterized in that the parametric model comprises a function (c(t,{right arrow over (p)})) describing a contrast peak with the phases of inflow, plateau, and outflow.

9. The system according to claim 3, characterized in that the data processing unit is adapted to determine a function (c(t,{right arrow over (p)})) that represents the amount of contrast agent at any point in the vascular model when contrast agent is injected upstream and transported by convection and diffusion of a fluid through tubular structures of a known geometry up to this point.

10. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises an input device (22, 23) and that the data processing unit (20) is adapted to start the reconstruction of the vessel geometry from user-defined seed points.

11. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a display unit (21) for displaying the reconstructed vessel geometry and/or the reconstructed flow characteristics.

12. A method for the determination of the vessel geometry and the flow characteristics in a vessel system, comprising the following steps:

a) injecting a bolus (31) of contrast agent into the vessel system;

b) generating a temporal sequence of X-ray projections (P_l, P_k, P_N) of the vessel system during the passage of said bolus (31) from different directions;

c) reconstructing the three-dimensional vessel geometry and the flow characteristics at least partially based on the imaged contrast agent dynamics caused by the bolus.

13. A record carrier on which a computer program for the determination of the vessel geometry and the flow characteristics in a vessel system is stored, said program being adapted to execute a method according to claim 12.