Three-dimensional image analysis of blood vessels using cone-beam CT

The authors present a prototype system for three-dimensional (3D) image analysis of blood vessels using cone-beam CT. The purpose is to enhance the performance of clinician in assessing anatomical information such as the orientation of blood vessels, cross-sectional area, and volume of disease. The developed prototype system consists of two parts: 3D image reconstruction of blood vessels and analysis of the 3D blood vessel image. The Digital angiograms are collected in a short period of time by an X-ray rotational angiographic system using a CT gantry equipped with a cone-beam X-ray source and an image intensifier. The 3D reconstruction is performed by a short scan cone-beam filtered backprojection algorithm. The analysis of the 3D blood vessels image is based on a graph description obtained by a 3D binary thinning algorithm and a distance transformation of a 3D line pattern. A preprocessing of 3D reconstruction includes the correction of the geometrical distortions and the shading artifact introduced by the image intensifier. Furthermore, the authors correct the degradation of X-ray angiograms due to scatter and veiling glare to improve contrast sensitivity of a 3D reconstructed image. From results of the application to patient´s abdominal blood vessels, the authors present the effectiveness of the system