3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CORONARY-ARTERIES USING A-PRIORI KNOWLEDGE

A method for 3D reconstruction of the coronary arteries from two radio graphic images is presented. A novel technique for matching image stru ctures is the main contribution of the work. After a comprehensive stu dy of the knowledge required to approach this problem, an automatic me thod, which includes both numeric and symbolic procedures to solve geo metric ambiguities, is developed. In the proposed method, all possible (virtual) reconstructions are first obtained. Their validity is evalu ated by means of a priori knowledge about the 3D object and its projec tions, From the set of chosen possible solutions, the most likely solu tion is selected. The method is tested using real images and is implem ented in a platform that allows further clinical validation.