Quantitative evaluation and comparison of coronary artery characteristics by 3D coronary volume reconstruction

Abstract

Non-atherosclerotic abnormalities of vessel calibre, aneurysm and ectasia, are challenging to quantify and are often overlooked in qualitative reporting. Utilising a novel 3-dimensional (3D) quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) application, we have evaluated the characteristics of normal, diabetic and aneurysmal or ectatic coronary arteries. We selected 131 individuals under 50 years-of-age, who had undergone coronary angiography for suspected myocardial ischaemia between 1st January 2011 and 31st December 2015, at the Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol, UK. This included 42 patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries, 36 diabetic patients with unobstructed coronaries, and 53 patients with abnormal coronary dilatation (aneurysm and ectasia). A total of 1105 coronary segments were analysed using QAngio XA 3D (Research Edition, Medis medical imaging systems, Leiden, The Netherlands). The combined volume of the major coronary arteries was significantly different between each group (1240 ± 476 mm3 diabetic group, 1646 ± 391 mm3 normal group, and 2072 ± 687 mm3 abnormal group). Moreover, the combined coronary artery volumes correlated with patient body surface area (r = 0.483, p < 0.01). Inter-observer variability was assessed and intraclass correlation coefficient of the total coronary artery volume demonstrated a low variability of 3D QCA (r = 0.996, p < 0.001). Dedicated 3D QCA facilitates reproducible coronary artery volume estimation and allows discrimination of normal and diseased vessels.

3D-shape formation of blood vessels based on computer aided design system

“…In their approach to construct the arteries, the diameter of the vessel was evaluated utilizing automatic detection of the change in contrast and manually corrected when it needs. Two angiographic images at different angles were also used in Kim et al 8 to construct 3D coronary artery. In this case, a manual approach was used to define the start and end points of the segment of interest and extract contours and centerlines.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] Many works have been carried out to obtain the 3D reconstruction of the blood vessels from various image devices and the missing depth data of the captured images is then investigated in studies that focus on the vessels' topology. [6][7][8] New blood vessel segmentation algorithms are currently being developed since segmentation is an essential step in constructing the geometry of the blood vessel. 2,9,10 Generating the blood vessel's centerline and determining each bifurcation point along the vessel tree is challenging.…”

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Pacemaker Lead Trajectory From Orthogonal Chest X-Rays: A Proof of Concept

“…A 3D construction is possible using computed tomography (CT), but it is difficult to perform the examination in a standing position. Currently, a number of studies have reported the feasibility of 3D reconstruction of coronary arteries from multiple angiographic projections in the field of interventional cardiology [4][5][6]. In this study, we propose a method to reconstruct the 3D shape of a pacing lead from radiographs taken at 90-degree angles.…”