Automatic extraction of the left atrial anatomy from MR for atrial fibrillation ablation

This paper describes and evaluates methods to detect pulmonary vein drainages and create detailed vessel trees of each drainage from contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). This description of the drainage allow us to determine the highly complex left atrial anatomy in a qualitative and quantitative way. It is beneficial for planning atrial fibrillation ablation procedures. We conclude that our methods permit the creation of drainage trees for the detailed description of the atrial anatomy from cardiac MRA data.