Bi-Plane X-ray coronary 3D reconstruction for flow velocity assessment.

In coronary angiography the coronary blood flow velocity can be assessed by tracking a contrast agent in an image sequence. The contrast agent flow velocity is used to estimate the functional behavior of the coronary arteries using TIMI frame count (TFC). In this paper we descibe the 3D reconstruction algorithm used in our method towards the automation of TFC. The method creates a two dimensional map of the contrast agent in which the opacification of the vessel centerline is plotted against time. This map is used to find the velocity of the contrast agent and subsequently the TFC. The vessel centerline is obtained using the Fast Marching Method to find the minimum cost path between the catheter point and the end of the vessel. The determination of the start and endpoint is estimated using a 3D model reconstructed from bi-plane 2D image data. The final reconstructed coronary model only includes the segments matching our error criterion