Simulating coronary arteries in x-ray angiograms

Clinical validation of quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) algorithms i s difficult due to the lack of a simple alternative method for accurately m easuring in vivo vessel dimensions. We address this problem by embedding si mulated coronary artery segments with known geometry in clinical angiograms . Our vessel model accounts for the profile of the vessel, x-ray attenuatio n in the original background, and noise in the imaging system. We have comp ared diameter measurements of our computer simulated arteries with measurem ents of an x-ray Telescopic-Shaped Phantom (XTSP) with the same diameters. The results show that for both uniform and anthropomorphic backgrounds ther e is good agreement in the measured diameters of XTSP compared to the simul ated arteries (Pearson's correlation coefficient 0.99). In addition, the di fference in accuracy and precision of the true diameter measures compared t o the XTSP and simulated artery diameters was small (mean absolute error ac ross all diameters was less than or equal to0.11 mm +/-0.09 mm). (C) 2000 A merican Association of Physicists in Medicine. [S0094-2405(00)01610-2].