An on-line system for the quantitative analysis of coronary arterial segments

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Abstract
The online quantification of coronary arteries is important for the objective and accurate assessment of the effects of coronary intervention procedures. The basic principles of a quantitative coronary arteriography (QCA) software package, to be implemented on the Philips DCI system, is described. First, a centerline of the selected arterial segment is defined. After the beginning and endpoints are manually defined, a modified beam algorithm (MBA) is used to automatically find a path line of this segment. With this path line as a first model, the arterial contours are detected automatically on the basis of the minimum-cost contour detection technique. For accurate results, the image is magnified by a factor of 2 by linear interpolation, and the minimum cost technique is used again, now employing the initially found contours as a model. On the basis of these final contours, a number of relevant clinical parameters are calculated. The QCA software package will be undergoing extensive evaluation studies; the MBA technique has been shown to be very reliable (success score 89.3%).<>