Supporting reconstruction of the blood vessel network using graph theory: An abstraction method

The blood vessel network (BVN) has a complex structure. As this structure is unique for each individual, it is not possible to establish a general model for the BVN. However, many medical applications do rely on this structure. For example, a drug delivery system would be greatly improved if it could control the drug flow towards destination. To address this BVN structure issue, several reconstruction methods have been introduced. In this paper, we describe an abstraction method supporting BVN reconstruction by using graph theory. Starting from an original BVN reconstruction, we define the so-called induced graph of that reconstruction, allowing for an efficient analysis. By applying this method, we were able to improve an original BVN reconstruction of a human kidney by pointing out probable errors inside that original reconstruction.