Estimation of coronary blood flow by contrast propagation using simulated X-ray angiography

The estimation of coronary blood flow from simulated X-ray angiograms is presented. It is based on contrast propagation and involves artery segmentation and motion removal. The propagation of contrast material bolus is represented in a parametric image of contrast material concentration as a function of time and distance along the vessel segment, that allows estimation of pulsatile blood flow. The artery sequence is segmented and thinned into their corresponding artery skeletons using morphological operators. Vessels are registered using two successive frames by minimization of deformation measures. The search strategy of optimal matching is realized using dynamic programming. The evaluation on simulated data has been realized on vessels (diameter from 1 to 2 millimeters) with and without stenosis, constant flow and pulsatile flow (around 250 ml/s). The obtained error in the worst case, was less than 2 percent