Three dimensional display of the heart and coronaries relating stenosis shape and severity to regional function

It is shown that displaying and animating the dynamic, three-dimensional (3-D) shape of the beating heart, including the global layout of the coronary tree and the local shape of the stenosed vessel, can help in assessing the severity of coronary artery disease, particularly in cases where several vessels are obstructed. The coronary tree is superimposed on the 3-D shape of the heart by using the anatomical markers of the anterior and posterior interventricular grooves and the ventriculoatrial groove. The program is also geared to zoom in on the stenosis and yield a 3-D surface reconstruction of the stenosis from biplane angiography. When the obstruction in the vessel occurs near a bifurcation in the coronary tree, the 3-D shape of the stenosed area can be too complicated for reconstruction as a surface, and a voxel space model is used to reconstruct and display the entire region of the stenosis, including the bifurcation. The regional function of the heart, estimated by the local wall thickening, is color coded and displayed on the epicardial surface