Method and system for generating a four-chamber heart model

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9275190-B2
Application number	US-8214308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2008
Priority date	Apr 23, 2007
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

A method and system for building a statistical four-chamber heart model from 3D volumes is disclosed. In order to generate the four-chamber heart model, each chamber is modeled using an open mesh, with holes at the valves. Based on the image data in one or more 3D volumes, meshes are generated and edited for the left ventricle (LV), left atrium (LA), right ventricle (RV), and right atrium (RA). Resampling to enforce point correspondence is performed during mesh editing. Important anatomic landmarks in the heart are explicitly represented in the four-chamber heart model of the present invention.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for generating a four-chamber heart model, comprising:
receiving a 3D volume;
generating a left ventricle (LV) mesh and a left atrium (LA) mesh based on said 3D volume;
generating a right ventricle (RV) mesh and a right atrium (RA) mesh based on said 3D volume;
resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes to establish point correspondence between said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes and meshes generated based on other 3D volumes; and
generating a statistical four-chamber heart shape model based on said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes displaying the statistical four chamber heart shape model.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said step of generating an LV mesh and an LA mesh comprises editing an initial LV mesh and an initial LA mesh based on said 3D volume;
said step of generating an RV mesh and an RA mesh comprises editing an initial RV mesh and an initial RA mesh based on said 3D volume; and
said step of resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes comprises resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes during the editing of the each of said initial LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of resampling of each of said LV, LA RV, and RA meshes comprises:
resampling said LV, LA, and RA meshes using rotation axis based resampling; and
resampling said RV mesh using slice based resampling.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of resampling said LV, LA, and RA meshes using rotation axis based resampling comprises for each mesh:
defining a rotation axis along a long axis of the mesh;
cutting the mesh with a plane that passing through the rotation axis to generate a 2D contour at the intersection the mesh and the plane, wherein the rotation axis divides the 2D contour into two curves;
uniformly resampling the two curves of the 2D contour independently from one another;
repeatedly rotating the plane around the rotation axis to define a series of 2D contours, the rotation axis dividing each 2D contour into two curves; and
uniformly resampling the two curves of each 2D contour independently from one another.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein said step of resampling said RV mesh using slice based resampling comprises:
cutting the RV mesh by a set of parallel planes, each plane perpendicular to a long axis of the RV mesh, to generate a series of 2D slices each having a single contour;
dividing the contour of each slice into two curves that meet at a pair of cusp points; and
uniformly resampling the two curves of each slice independently from one another.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of generating a left ventricle (LV) mesh and a left atrium (LA) mesh based on said 3D volume comprises:
detecting and annotating a mitral valve in said 3D volume;
detecting and annotating an aortic valve in said 3D volume; and
deforming an initial LV mesh and an initial LA mesh based on the mitral valve and the aortic valve in said 3D volume.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of generating a right ventricle (RV) mesh and a right atrium (RA) mesh based on said 3D volume comprises:
detecting and annotating a plane in said 3D volume that divides the RV into an RV main body, an RV inflow tract, and an RV outflow tract;
detecting and annotating a tricuspid valve in said 3D volume;
detecting and annotating a pulmonary valve in said 3D volume; and
deforming an initial RV mesh and an initial RA mesh based on said plane, said tricuspid valve, and said pulmonary valve in said 3D volume.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes are open meshes with holes representing valves.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said LV mesh models endocardial and epicardial borders of the LV.

10. An apparatus for generating a four-chamber heart model, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing computer program instructions, which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a 3D volume;
generating a left ventricle (LV) mesh and a left atrium (LA) mesh based on said 3D volume;
generating a right ventricle (RV) mesh and a right atrium (RA) mesh based on said 3D volume;
resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes to establish point correspondence between said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes and meshes generated based on other 3D volumes; and
generating a statistical four-chamber heart shape model based on said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes displaying the statistical four chamber heart shape model.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein:
said operation of generating an LV mesh and an LA mesh comprises means for editing an initial LV mesh and an initial LA mesh based on said 3D volume;
said operation of generating an RV mesh and an RA mesh comprises means for editing an initial RV mesh and an initial RA mesh based on said 3D volume; and
said operation of resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes comprises means for resampling each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes during the editing of the each of said initial LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein resampling of each of said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes comprises:
resampling said LV, LA, and RA meshes using rotation axis based resampling; and
resampling said RV mesh using slice based resampling.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein resampling said LV, LA, and RA meshes using rotation axis based resampling comprises for each mesh:
defining a rotation axis along a long axis of the mesh;
cutting the mesh with a plane that passing through the rotation axis to generate a 2D contour at the intersection the mesh and the plane, wherein the rotation axis divides the 2D contour into two curves; and
uniformly resampling the two curves of the 2D contour independently from one another.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein resampling said RV mesh using slice based resampling comprises:
cutting the RV mesh by a set of parallel planes, each plane perpendicular to a long axis of the RV mesh, to generate a series of 2D slices each having a single contour;
dividing the contour of each slice into two curves that meet at a pair of cusp points; and
uniformly resampling the two curves of each slice independently from one another.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein generating a left ventricle (LV) mesh and a left atrium (LA) mesh based on said 3D volume comprises:
detecting and annotating a mitral valve in said 3D volume;
detecting and annotating an aortic valve in said 3D volume; and
deforming an initial LV mesh and an initial LA mesh based on the mitral valve and the aortic valve in said 3D volume.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein generating a right ventricle (RV) mesh and a right atrium (RA) mesh based on said 3D volume comprises:
detecting and annotating a plane in said 3D volume that divides the RV into an RV main body, an RV inflow tract, and an RV outflow tract;
detecting and annotating a tricuspid valve in said 3D volume;
detecting and annotating a pulmonary valve in said 3D volume; and
deforming an initial RV mesh and an initial RA mesh based on said plane, said tricuspid valve, and said pulmonary valve in said 3D volume.

17. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein said LV, LA, RV, and RA meshes are open meshes with holes representing valves.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein said LV mesh models endocardial and epicardial borders of the LV.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions for generating a four-cham

Assignees

• Zheng Yefeng
• Barbu Adrian
• Georgescu Bogdan
• Lynch Michael
• Scheuering Michael
• Comaniciu Dorin
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Zheng Yefeng
• Barbu Adrian
• Georgescu Bogdan
• Lynch Michael
• Scheuering Michael
• Comaniciu Dorin

Classifications

• G06F19/3437 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F19/34

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/30048

  Heart; Cardiac · CPC title

• G16Z99/00

  Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass · CPC title

• G16H30/20

  for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS · CPC title