Three-dimensional reconstruction of LV endocardial surfaces from echocardiographic images using deformable shell models

The authors developed computer software for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction, of left ventricular endocardial surfaces throughout the cardiac cycle from ultrasound images acquired using a recently developed transthoracic multiplane transducer. The border between endocardial tissue and blood as automatically detected using Acoustic Quantification (AQ). A deformable wire-frame model was initialized and deformed to fit the AQ endocardial boundaries and generate a sequence of smooth 3D endocardial surfaces by interpolation from the deformed wire-frames. Fairly smooth endocardial surfaces in motion were reconstructed from scattered, noisy 3D data. Rendering results mere independently verified as realistic by three separate cardiologists. Reconstruction time ranged between 5-10 minutes. Due to the noninvasive and real-time character of AQ technology and the efficiency of this new algorithm, this technique provides an excellent alternative for fast 3D reconstruction of LV endocardial motion.