CORONARY-ARTERY MAPPING - A METHOD FOR 3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF EPICARDIAL ANATOMY

Evaluation of coronary anatomy with conventional coronary angiography requires visual integration of multiple images from different viewing orientations to generate a mental interpretation of three-dimensional (3D) structure. The epicardial surface is, in many ways, analogous to the earth's surface topography and may be effectively depicted using c artographic methods. To show coronary anatomy visualized as topographi c maps, we used cartographic projection methods to analyze the coronar y vessels of a canine heart after immediate postmortem injection with a radio-opaque gelatinous solution. A volumetric image data set was ob tained with x-ray spiral computed tomography. The principal axis of th e image volume was calculated and the image volume reformatted to a re ference coordinate system defined by the principal axis as the ordinat e. A cylindrical projection map of the epicardial surface was created using a maximum-intensity projection volume rendering technique. After converting the Cartesian reference coordinate system to a polar coord inate system, additional mapping projections from user-defined orienta tions were generated. The results show that interpretative difficultie s of coronary angiography may be diminished by generating 3D maps of c oronary anatomy using volumetric datasets acquired noninvasively and d isplayed with cartographic methods. Copyright (C) 1995 by W. B. Saunde rs Company