An on-line system for the quantitative analysis of coronary arterial segments

The online quantification of coronary arteries is important for the objective and accurate assessment of the effects of coronary intervention procedures. The basic principles of a quantitative coronary arteriography (QCA) software package, to be implemented on the Philips DCI system, is described. First, a centerline of the selected arterial segment is defined. After the beginning and endpoints are manually defined, a modified beam algorithm (MBA) is used to automatically find a path line of this segment. With this path line as a first model, the arterial contours are detected automatically on the basis of the minimum-cost contour detection technique. For accurate results, the image is magnified by a factor of 2 by linear interpolation, and the minimum cost technique is used again, now employing the initially found contours as a model. On the basis of these final contours, a number of relevant clinical parameters are calculated. The QCA software package will be undergoing extensive evaluation studies; the MBA technique has been shown to be very reliable (success score 89.3%)