Analysis of the helix and transverse angles of the muscle fibers in the myocardium based on Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Realistic models of the muscle fibers in the myocardium improve the understanding and simulation of the bio-mechanical behavior of the heart. Since Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) allows to visualize the fiber structures in the tissues, this modality can be used to build fiber models. In this paper, we propose an automatic method for the analysis of the helix and transverse angles between the fibers and the myocardial wall. It computes automatically the theoretical value of these angles (according to a mathematical model described in the literature) at each voxel of the image as well as the real value based on the DTI acquisition. In addition, new parameters of the mathematical model can be estimated based on our approach to personalize the model for specific data-sets.