Fast Temporal Tracking and 3D Reconstruction of a Single Coronary Vessel

Vessel extraction and vessel motion estimation from X-ray angiograms has been a challenging computer vision problem for several years. We have developed a fast and accurate method for extracting and tracking intravascular imaging data from X-ray angiograms. We accomplish this by reconstructing a moving 3D vessel, which contains more information than the static 2D snapshot image. Our approach involves identifying the vessel-of-interest in two biplane images, abstracting them into centerlines, and tracking them in ensuing images using deformable templates and graph techniques for optimization. When tested on fifteen patient datasets, the computational time was approximately 5 seconds per vessel per frame for vessels of length 80-100 mm.