Systems and methods for estimating ischemia and blood flow characteristics from vessel geometry and physiology

• US 9,974,453 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Heartflow Inc.
• Original Assignee: Heartflow Inc.
• Inventors: Fonte, Timothy, Choi, Gilwoo, Grady, Leo, Singer, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Jonathan S
• Application Number:
  US15/200,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20160310096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 690 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2560/0475 Special features of memory means, e.g. removable memory cards
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02007 Evaluating blood vessel condition, e.g. elasticity, compliance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/021 Measuring pressure in heart or blood vessels A61B5/0205 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/026 Measuring blood flow A61B3/1233, A61B3/1241 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/107 Measuring physical dimensions, e.g. size of the entire body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14535 for measuring haematocrit
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14546 for measuring analytes not otherwise provided for, e.g. ions, cytochromes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7278 Artificial waveform generation or derivation, e.g. synthesising signals from measured signals A61B5/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/743 Displaying an image simultaneously with additional graphical information, e.g. symbols, charts, function plots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/032 Transmission computed tomography [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/504 for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/507 for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/5217 extracting a diagnostic or physiological parameter from medical diagnostic data
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/563 : involving image data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 : Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 : Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 : for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for determining individual-specific blood flow characteristics. One method includes acquiring, for each of a plurality of individuals, individual-specific anatomic data and blood flow characteristics of at least part of the individual'"'"'s vascular system; executing a machine learning algorithm on the individual-specific anatomic data and blood flow characteristics for each of the plurality of individuals; relating, based on the executed machine learning algorithm, each individual'"'"'s individual-specific anatomic data to functional estimates of blood flow characteristics; acquiring, for an individual and individual-specific anatomic data of at least part of the individual'"'"'s vascular system; and for at least one point in the individual'"'"'s individual-specific anatomic data, determining a blood flow characteristic of the individual, using relations from the step of relating individual-specific anatomic data to functional estimates of blood flow characteristics.

Claims

1. A method for hemodynamic determination in medical imaging, the method comprising:

acquiring medical scan data representing an anatomical structure of a patient to generate a patient-specific geometric model of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure;

extracting a set of features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model;

inputting, by a processor, the features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model to a machine-trained classifier, the machine-trained classifier trained from synthetic anatomical data and hemodynamic metrics of a plurality of individuals; and

generating and outputting, by the processor using the machine-trained classifier applied to the extracted features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure, a hemodynamic metric corresponding to a flow of blood through the anatomical structure of the patient.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein acquiring comprises acquiring angiography data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein acquiring comprises acquiring with the medical scan data a geometrical representation of the anatomical structure.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting the set of the features comprises:

extracting geometrical features of the anatomical structure.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting the set of the features comprises extracting features representing operation of the anatomical structure, wherein the machine-trained classifier is trained from virtual representations of the operation of the anatomical structure.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting the set of the features comprises extracting an ischemic weight.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein extracting the set of the features comprises extracting characteristics of a coronary branch geometry.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting comprises outputting a value of the hemodynamic metric on a display with an image of the anatomical structure generated from the medical scan data.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting the hemodynamic metric comprises outputting fractional flow reserve.

10. A system for hemodynamic determination in medical imaging, the system comprising:

a data storage device storing instructions for hemodynamic determination in medical imaging; and

a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including the steps of;

acquiring medical scan data representing an anatomical structure of a patient to generate a patient-specific geometric model of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure;

extracting a set of features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model;

inputting, by a processor, the features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model to a machine-trained classifier, the machine-trained classifier trained from synthetic anatomical data and hemodynamic metrics of a plurality of individuals; and

generating and outputting, by the processor using the machine-trained classifier applied to the extracted features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure, a hemodynamic metric corresponding to a flow of blood through the anatomical structure of the patient.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method including:

acquiring medical scan data representing an anatomical structure of a patient to generate a patient-specific geometric model of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure;

extracting a set of features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model;

inputting, by a processor, the features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure from the patient-specific geometric model to a machine-trained classifier, the machine-trained classifier trained from synthetic anatomical data and hemodynamic metrics of a plurality of individuals; and

generating and outputting, by the processor using the machine-trained classifier applied to the extracted features of the patient'"'"'s anatomical structure, a hemodynamic metric corresponding to a flow of blood through the anatomical structure of the patient.