A model based approach to assignment of myocardial fibre orientation

A model based method is presented to assign the fibre orientation in the human heart. The approach uses anatomical models, which are derivable from medical tomographic images. These models describe the geometry of the atria and ventricles. The approach extends the models by applying information from morphological measurements, which examine the fibre orientation for the different anatomical structures in the dissected normal hearts. The orientation of myocardial fibres is interpolated based on restrictions, which are determined with automatic methods inside and on the surface of myocardial structures. For each structure a different rulebased method is chosen. The method is illustrated with an exemplary anatomical model, which was constructed with techniques of digital image processing based on the Visible Female data set