Fast delineation and visualization of vessels in 3-D angiographic images

Author

Wink, Onno ; Niessen, Wiro J. ; Viergever, Max A.

Author_Institution

Med. Center, Utrecht Univ., Netherlands

Volume

19

Issue

4

fYear

2000

fDate

4/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

337

Lastpage

346

Abstract

A method is presented which aids the clinician in obtaining quantitative measures and a three-dimensional (3-D) representation of vessels from 3-D angiographic data with a minimum of user interaction. Based on two user defined starting points, an iterative procedure tracks the central vessel axis. During the tracking process, the minimum diameter and a surface rendering of the vessels are computed, allowing for interactive inspection of the vasculature. Applications of the method to CTA, contrast enhanced (CE)-MRA and phase contrast (PC)-MRA images of the abdomen are shown. In all applications, a long stretch of vessels with varying width is tracked, delineated, and visualized, in less than 10 s on a standard clinical workstation.

Keywords

biomedical MRI; blood vessels; iterative methods; medical image processing; rendering (computer graphics); 10 s; abdomen; central vessel axis tracking; contrast enhanced MRA; iterative procedure; magnetic resonance angiography; medical diagnostic imaging; phase contrast MRA; standard clinical workstation; user defined starting points; varying width vessels; Abdomen; Data mining; Data visualization; Diseases; Inspection; Monitoring; Rendering (computer graphics); Surgery; Telematics; Workstations; Algorithms; Angiography; Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal; Artifacts; Blood Vessels; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Angiography; Radiographic Image Enhancement; Tomography, X-Ray Computed;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0062

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/42.848184

Filename

848184