A highly-detailed quadric-based analytical phantom for efficient cardiac CT simulations

This paper presents an analytical phantom of the heart, named the UCAIR heart, that is specifically designed for the development and evaluation of imaging techniques in X-ray cardiac computed tomography (CT). The UCAIR heart is built from a combination of quadrics and bi-quadrics through which line integrals can be easily computed using analytical formulae, and allows thereby efficient CT simulation with incorporation of all optical effects (finite focal spot size, anode angle, view integration). The UCAIR heart consists of two parts (the whole heart and a coronary tree), is shown to be highly realistic, and is also shown to admit as one of its many features a random generator of coronary plaques