Extraction of coronary vascular tree and myocardial perfusion data from stacks of cryomicrotome images

Abstract

Computational models of myocardial perfusion in normal as well as pathological conditions have contributed to recent advances in the personalized diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.. For the coronary circulation we attempt to develop a vascular tree model based on realistic replicas from the intramural vessels in hearts from animals and man. These virtual replicas are obtained by means of a novel imaging cryomicrotome producing a stack of 4000 images of 2000x2000 pixels. This paper describes the methods developed for segmentation of the images resulting in a 3D virtual vascular model. Also the methods for fluorescent microsphere detection are described used to validate the models in prediction of flow distribution over the walls of the heart chambers. Special attention is provided to the detection of collaterals and collateral flow. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.