Abstract
BACKGROUND: Coronary stenosis is the main cause of the coronary heart disease (CHD). However, coronary arteriography (CAG), which is considered as the 'gold standard' of determining the location and severity of CHD, hardly acquires a satisfactory image for some lesions by traditional viewing angles.
OBJECTIVE: We proposed a new approach to calculate the optimal viewing angles of CAG system to observe vessel segment of interest.
METHODS: Firstly, the 4-D coronary arteries are segmented to obtain a dynamic vessel model. Then, a "rendering" method in computer graphics is used to calculate the optimal viewing angles of the vessel segment in the entire cardiac cycle. At last, an intersection of these angles can be regarded as the optimal ones in the whole cardiac cycle.
RESULTS: Within the constraint of 2% foreshortening, the single phase data show 1% foreshortening without overlapping at the optimal angles proposed by our method, compared with 1.8% foreshortening at working angles set by clinical experts. And the multi-phase experiments also have good results.
CONCLUSIONS: The new approach can provide doctors optimal viewing angles of interested vessel segment in the whole cardiac cycle.