Towards a comprehensive geometric model of the heart

Abstract

Domain knowledge about the geometrical properties of cardiac structures is an important ingredient for the segmentation of those structures in medical images or for the simulation of cardiac physiology. So far, a strong focus was put on the left ventricle due to its importance for the general pumping performance of the heart and related functional indices. However, other cardiac structures are of similar importance, e.g. the coronary arteries with respect to diagnosis and treatment of arteriosclerosis or the left atrium with respect to the treatment of atrial fibrillation. In this paper we describe the generation of a comprehensive geometric cardiac model including the four cardiac chambers and the trunks of the connected vasculature, as well as the coronary arteries and a set of cardiac landmarks. A mean geometric model has been built. A general process to add inter-individual and temporal variability is proposed and will be added in a second stage. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.