Modeling of tumor conspicuity in hepatic CT images: combined compartment and vascular models

The aim of this work is to simulate dynamic CT scan of the liver, in normal tissue and in a hypervascular tumor. Two models are developed: a physiological vascular model for the main vessels, until arterioles and venules, and a compartment model for parenchyma enhancement. Combining these two models allows us to compute locally the contrast product concentration, all along the propagation, after injection in the hepatic artery and the portal vein. In the second step, a density representation of the organ is created and CT scans are simulated by using the standard reconstruction algorithm - filtered backprojection. As a final step, enhancement curves are extracted from the obtained images, showing very good agreement with real hepatic enhancement in CT.