Effect of small linear motion on the accuracy of estimating coronary vessel stenosis in Cardiac Computed Tomography

Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD) are believed to be the most common form of heart diseases and the leading cause of deaths of both men and women in the United States. The diagnosis of CAD is largely dependent on various medical imaging procedures and the experience of the radiologists and cardiologists to form a diagnosis based upon those images. In case of using Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography (CCTA) to assess coronary vessel stenosis, the geometry of the vessels and the cardiac rhythm can alter the image produced during the scan. There is a need to study the effects of these artifacts on the image, as it could largely impact the decision of calling a vessel stenosis. These artifacts cause an increasing number of false positive diagnosis, thereby leading several patients without lesions or stenosis to catheterization. The small motion causes changes in the signal intensity in those lesions, leading to incorrect diagnosis. Hence, based on the results of the previous computer simulation research done on the effects of coronary geometry and motion on the CT images, a similar study is aimed on the physical phantom and some real patient data set. We aim to characterize motion in the coronary arteries and make inferences about suggestive CT procedures or post processing required after a CCTA. A part of this study involved doing real time CT scans on phantom and using pre-recorded CT data. The outcome of the research is the various trends in motion and the effect of that motion on the intensity of the resulting images