Establishment of Standard Human Blood Vessel Model Based on Image Registration and Fitting Technology

Abstract

Purpose: The blood vessel gives key information for pathological changes in a variety of diseases. In view of the crucial role of blood vessel structure, the present study aims to establish a digital human blood vessel standard model for diagnosing blood vessel-related diseases. Methods: The present study recruited eight healthy volunteers, and reconstructed their bilateral upper extremity arteries according to CTA. The reconstructed vessels were segmented, registered, and merged into a bunch. After being cut by continuous cut planes, the dispersion of the blood vessel bunches on each cut plane were calculated. Results: The results demonstrated that the middle segment of the brachial artery, the proximal segment of the ulnar artery, and the middle and distal segments of the radial artery had a low degree of dispersion. A standard blood vessel model was finally established by the integral method using the low-dispersion segments above. The accuracy of the standard blood vessel model was also verified by an actual contralateral vessel, which revealed that the deviation between the model and the actual normal contralateral brachial artery was relatively small. Conclusion: The structure of the model was highly accordant with the real ones, which can be of great help in evaluating the blood vessel changes in blood vessel-related diseases, bone and soft-tissue tumors, and creating accurate surgical plans.