Coronary Artery Angiography Image Processing for Cardiac Muscle Viability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical imaging technologies, such as X-ray CT and MRI, face challenges in visualizing the effect of coronary artery lesions on cardiac muscle due to radiation exposure and the inability to depict affected cardiac muscle regions without separate scanning, which burdens patients and limits the depiction of cardiac muscle viability and blood vessel effects.
Innovation Solution
A medical image processing device and method that extracts blood vessel and organ regions, calculates blood vessel dependence based on distance and blood flow volume data, and generates images indicating the effect of blood vessels on organs, including simulation images for cardiac muscle infarction or angina pectoris, allowing visualization without separate scanning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If separate scanning (nuclear medicine image + X-ray CT image) is performed to visualize coronary artery lesions and cardiac muscle, then diagnostic information is obtained, but patients bear severe physical burden
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines coronary artery angiography image data with cardiac muscle image data into a single integrated image processing system. The extraction unit identifies both blood vessel regions and organ regions from the same scanning data, and the calculation unit computes blood vessel dependence values that map the vascular network onto the cardiac muscle structure, eliminating the need for separate nuclear medicine and CT scans.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary calculation layer that processes the relationship between blood vessels and cardiac muscle through mathematical modeling. The calculation unit uses distance data and blood flow volume data to compute dependence values, which serve as a mediator to visualize the effect of coronary artery lesions on cardiac muscle without requiring additional separate imaging scans.
2Loss of information
If delayed contrast imaging is performed to visualize cardiac muscle viability, then cardiac muscle effect is visualized, but radiation exposure occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a computational copy or simulation of the cardiac muscle vascularization pattern by calculating blood vessel dependence values from angiography data. This virtual model replicates the functional relationship between blood vessels and cardiac muscle without requiring actual delayed contrast imaging, thereby avoiding additional radiation exposure while preserving diagnostic information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the physical delayed contrast imaging process with a computational modeling approach. Instead of using contrast agents and physical scanning to visualize cardiac muscle viability, the system uses mathematical calculations based on distance and blood flow volume data to simulate and visualize the vascular effects on cardiac muscle.
3Reliability
If coronary artery is completely occluded, then contrast agent cannot reach distal portions, but it becomes difficult to depict affected cardiac muscle regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary calculation of blood vessel dependence values for all regions before occlusion occurs. By pre-computing the vascular network model and its relationship to cardiac muscle based on angiography data, the system can identify affected regions even when contrast agent flow is blocked, as the computational model predicts the expected vascularization pattern that is now absent.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of trying to visualize the affected cardiac muscle regions directly through contrast enhancement (which fails when occluded), the patent inverts the approach by calculating and visualizing the blood vessel dependence values themselves. This inversion allows the system to detect the absence of expected vascularization patterns, thereby identifying affected regions even when contrast agent flow is completely blocked.
Data Source
AI summary
By a CPU (101) of a device (100) for processing medical image, a coronary artery region and a cardiac muscle region that are to be analyzed are extracted from angiographic images of the coronary artery obtained from X-ray CT images or the like. Next, degrees of isolation (blood vessel dependences), which indicate the effects of the coronary artery on the individual sites of the myocardium, are calculated. The calculated degrees of isolation are referred to as pixel values and displayed while superimposed on a bull's eye map of the cardiac muscle, a three-dimensional image of the heart or the like. As a result, the effect of infarction or constriction on the cardiac muscle region can be visually recognized merely by using the angiographic image data of the coronary artery without conducting a delay angiographic imaging examination or the like.