System and method for time-resolved, three-dimensional angiography with flow information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10818073-B2
Application number	US-201514643853-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2015
Priority date	Mar 10, 2015
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

A system and method are provided for generating time resolved series of angiographic volume data having flow information integrated therewith. The method includes generating a series of 3D time-resolved vascular volumes from time resolved x-ray projection data and calculating blood velocity in the vascular volumes x-ray projection data to determine a rate of change of calculated contrast material arrival time at positions along the vascular volumes. The method also includes displaying the 3D time-resolved vascular volumes with a graphical indication of blood velocity in the vascular volumes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for generating time: resolved series of angiographic volume data having velocity or velocity-derived information integrated therewith, the system comprising:
an image processing system configured to:
perform an imaging acquisition by receiving angiographic volume data acquired from a subject having received a dose of a contrast agent using an imaging system;
process the angiographic volume data to generate time-resolved, three-dimensional images by:
generating a time-series of two-dimensional images, each of the two-dimensional images corresponding to a different time during the imaging acquisition and a different view angle relative to the subject, wherein each of the two-dimensional images comprises pixel intensity information;
reconstructing a three-dimensional image of the subject without temporal resolution;
determining, for each of a plurality of the two-dimensional images, voxel weightings in the three-dimensional image without temporal resolution using the two-dimensional images; and
producing the time-resolved, three-dimensional images of the subject by selectively combining the three-dimensional image without temporal resolution and the time-series of two-dimensional images;
deriving flow information associated with vessels in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images by determining an arrival curve for the contrast agent from the angiographic volume data indicating a rate of change of the a time of arrival (TOA) of contrast agent, wherein the TOA is calculated using a first moment of a frame of the time-resolved, three-dimensional images of the subject weighted by a contrast arrival curve and normalized by an integral of the contrast arrival curve;
modulating at least a portion of the vessels in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images with the flow information; and

a display configured to display the time-resolved, three-dimensional images of the subject modulated by the flow information.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the display is configured to display the flow information as time-resolved, color-coded flow information aligned with at least a portion of the vessels in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the image processing system is configured to determine a centerline of a given vessel in a region of interest (ROI) in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images and use the centerline to align the flow information with the given vessel in the ROI.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the image processing system is further configured to determine the TOA of the contrast agent in the given vessel in the ROI.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the image processing system is further configured to generate a TOA curve for each voxel in the given vessel in the ROI.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the image processing system is further configured to generate color-coded flow information from the TOA curve for each voxel in the given vessel in the ROI.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the image processing system is further configured to perform one of a marching cube process and a rotating mask process to determine a flow direction within the given vessel in the ROI.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the image processing system is further configured to compare the flow direction and the TOA curve for each voxel in the given vessel in the ROI to a lookup table to determine a color coding for each voxel.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the image processing system is further configured to modulate the color coding for each voxel by a voxel intensity of the time-resolved, three-dimensional images.

10. The system of claim 3 wherein the ROI includes one of a selected portion of the vessels in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images or all vessels in the time-resolved, three-dimensional images.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the flow information includes at least one of a direction of flow and a velocity.

Assignees

• Wisconsin Alumni Res Found

Inventors

• Mistretta Charles A
• Strother Charles M

Classifications

• A61B6/4441 Primary

  the rigid structure being a C-arm or U-arm · CPC title

• A61B5/0275

  using tracers, e.g. dye dilution · CPC title

• A61B6/507

  for determination of haemodynamic parameters, e.g. perfusion CT · CPC title

• A61B6/466

  adapted to display 3D data · CPC title

• A61B6/486

  involving generating temporal series of image data · CPC title