Assessment and visualization of the curvature of the left ventricle from 3D medical images

doi:10.1016/0895-6111(93)90015-F

Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics

Volume 17, Issues 4–5, July–October 1993, Pages 257-262

https://doi.org/10.1016/0895-6111(93)90015-F Get rights and content

Abstract

We address the problem of using curvature features to assess the three-dimensional (3D) motion of the left ventricle. The adequacy of this approach depends on the actual characteristics of the curvature of the left ventricle and particularly on the spatial and temporal stability of these features. From experimental data, we compute the distribution of the Gaussian curvature over the surface of the left ventricle by using an iterative procedure. The results are visualized in 313 through a voxel-based surface rendering technique. We show that the Gaussian curvature remains stable along the cardiac cycle. This curvature feature could thus provide a reliable basis for further 3D motion analysis of the left ventricle.

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We have investigated an optical flow method for the estimation of the three-dimensional endocardial wall motion from high-resolution X-ray CT data. This method was originally proposed by Song and Leahy. It is based on the optical flow, the divergence-free and the smoothness constraints. Due to the characteristics of the imaging modality, we studied the restriction of this approach to the boundary of the left ventricular (LV) cavity. The behaviour of the method is quantified through simulations approximating the overall motion of the LV cavity through an affine transform involving a dilation and a rotation. The method implies the choice of three parameters weighting the constraints. The results show a weak dependence of the velocity field on the weighting of the optical flow constraint. The accuracy of the method relies more heavily on the relative weighting of the smoothness and divergence-free constraints. In our experiments, the best results were obtained for a largely predominant divergence-free constraint. The results also show that the accuracy of the method is reasonable for low values of the rotation angle (minimum mean error of 1.1 voxel for 5°). This is compatible with values reported in other studies for the overall rotation of the LV. We provide a qualitative description of the results obtained in vivo on a canine heart by visualizing the distribution of the estimated velocity vector magnitudes over the endocardial surface. These results (evolution of the field over time, maximum velocities) are in agreement with the known physiological behaviour of the heart.

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Assessment and visualization of the curvature of the left ventricle from 3D medical images

Abstract

Computer vision, graphics, and image processing

CGVIP: image understanding

Contractile function in canine right ventricle

Am. J. Physiol.

Three-dimensional left ventricular wall motion in man coordinate systems for representing wall movement direction

Invest. Radiol.

Estimation of local cardiac wall deformation and regional wall stresses from biplane coronary cineangiograms

IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.

Motion analysis and modeling of epicardial surfaces from points and line correspondences

Analysis and visualisation of heart motion

Non-rigid motion for tracking the left-ventricular wall

Toward finding point correspondences in nonrigid motion