Enhanced cardio vascular image analysis by combined representation of results from dynamic MRI and anatomic CTA

The diagnosis support in the field of coronary artery disease (CAD) is very complex due to the numerous symptoms and performed studies leading to the final diagnosis. CTA and MRI are on their way to replace invasive catheter angiography. Thus, there is a need for sophisticated software tools that present the different analysis results, and correlate the anatomical and dynamic image information. We introduce a new software assistant for the combined result visualization of CTA and MR images, in which a dedicated concept for the structured presentation of original data, segmentation results, and individual findings is realized. Therefore, we define a comprehensive class hierarchy and assign suitable interaction functions. User guidance is coupled as closely as possible with available data, supporting a straightforward workflow design. The analysis results are extracted from two previously developed software assistants, providing coronary artery analysis and measurements, function analysis as well as late enhancement data investigation. As an extension we introduce a finding concept directly relating suspicious positions to the underlying data. An affine registration of CT and MR data in combination with the AHA 17-segment model enables the coupling of local findings to positions in all data sets. Furthermore, sophisticated visualization in 2D and 3D and interactive bull's eye plots facilitate a correlation of coronary stenoses and physiology. The software has been evaluated on 20 patient data sets.