Image processing on regular coronary angiograms for myocardial perfusion measurements

The amount of regional myocardial blood flow, called myocardial perfusion, is useful information when assessing heart conditions. We have been studying to develop a practical method to evaluate regional myocardial perfusion using coronary angiogram images (CAG). In this kind of method, there are several associated problems: FOV (field-of-view) movement, heart-shape changes in every cardiac cycle, and blood flow through coronary arteries. In order to evaluate myocardial perfusion correctly, these undesirable factors must be overcome. For this purpose, we developed several image- processing techniques described in this article. We applied them to several CAG data sets, which were obtained before and after circulation stimulation treatment. The results with our method show that myocardial perfusion increases after treatment. Therefore, we confirmed that our evaluation method was effective.