Processing apparatus for processing cardiac data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9788807-B2
Application number	US-201414912241-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 26, 2014
Priority date	Sep 6, 2013
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

The invention relates to a processing apparatus for processing cardiac data of a living being and to an imaging system comprising the processing apparatus. A distribution of Fractional flow reserve (FFR) values being indicative of the FFR of different coronary arteries of the living being, a distribution of myocardial perfusion values like values of an iodine map being indicative of the myocardial perfusion of different portions of the myocardium of the living being and assignments between coronary arteries and portions of the myocardium of the living being are used for determining degrees of correspondence between FFR values and myocardial perfusion values. This allows for, for example, a determination of the reliability of the FFR values, if the myocardial perfusion values are known to be reliable, based on the determined degrees of correspondence.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A processing apparatus for processing cardiac data of a living being, the processing apparatus comprising:
a fractional flow reserve providing unit, implemented by a computer, that provides a distribution of fractional flow reserve values being indicative of the fractional flow reserve of different coronary arteries of the living being,
a myocardial perfusion providing unit, implemented by the computer, that provides a distribution of myocardial perfusion values being indicative of the myocardial perfusion of different portions of the myocardium of the living being,
an assignments providing unit, implemented by the computer, that provides assignments between coronary arteries and portions of the myocardium of the living being, wherein the assignments define which portion of the myocardium is fed by which coronary artery,
a correspondence determining unit, implemented by the computer, that determines degrees of correspondence between fractional flow reserve values and myocardial perfusion values based on the distribution of fractional flow reserve values, the distribution of myocardial perfusion values and the assignments between the coronary arteries and portions of the myocardium.

2. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the fractional flow reserve providing unit is adapted to determine the distribution of fractional flow reserve values based on a provided three-dimensional geometry of the coronary artery tree.

3. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the processing apparatus further comprises a heart model providing unit for providing a cardiac model, wherein the cardiac model models at least different portions of the myocardium fed by different coronary arteries, wherein the assignments providing unit is adapted to register the cardiac model to the provided three-dimensional geometry of the coronary artery tree for determining the assignments between coronary arteries and portions of the myocardium.

4. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the myocardial perfusion providing unit is adapted to provide a three-dimensional iodine map obtained from a spectral computed tomography measurement or an area-under-curve map obtained from a dynamic myocardial perfusion computed tomography measurement as the distribution of myocardial perfusion values.

5. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the distribution of fractional flow reserve values defines a fractional flow reserve value for one or several coronary arteries assigned to the same portion of the myocardium and wherein the distribution of myocardial perfusion values defines a myocardial perfusion value for the portion of the myocardium, wherein the correspondence determining unit is adapted to determine a degree of correspondence between the fractional flow reserve value and the myocardial perfusion value by comparing the fractional flow reserve value with a first threshold and the myocardial perfusion value with a second threshold, wherein
a larger degree of correspondence is determined, if a) the fractional flow reserve value is smaller than the first threshold and the myocardial perfusion value is smaller than the second threshold or b) the fractional flow reserve value is larger than the first threshold and the myocardial perfusion value is larger than the second threshold, and
a smaller degree of correspondence is determined, if a) the fractional flow reserve value is larger than the first threshold and the myocardial perfusion value is smaller than the second threshold or b) the fractional flow reserve value is smaller than the first threshold and the myocardial perfusion value is larger than the second threshold.

6. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 5 , wherein the first threshold depends on the distribution of fractional flow reserve values and/or the second threshold depends on the distribution of myocardial perfusion values.

7. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 6 , wherein the first threshold depends on the average of the distribution of fractional flow reserve values and/or the second threshold depends on the average of the distribution of the myocardial perfusion values.

8. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the processing apparatus further comprises a display for displaying the coronary arteries and/or the portions of the myocardium and for displaying indications being indicative of the determined degrees of correspondence at the respective locations of the coronary arteries and/or of the portions of the myocardium, respectively.

9. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein the processing apparatus is adapted such that
a first kind of indications is shown on the display at locations of the coronary arteries and/or of the portions of the myocardium, at which the respective determined degree of correspondence is smaller than a correspondence threshold, and/or
a second kind of indications is shown on the display at locations of the coronary arteries and/or of the portions of the myocardium, at which the respective determined degree of correspondence is larger than the correspondence threshold.

10. The processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the fractional flow reserve providing unit is adapted to determine the distribution of fractional flow reserve values based on a first image of the heart of the living being generated by a first imaging modality and wherein the myocardial perfusion providing unit is adapted to determine the distribution of myocardial perfusion values based on a second image of the heart of the living being generated by a second imaging modality being different to the first imaging modality.

11. An imaging system for imaging a heart of a living being, the imaging system comprising:
X-ray detector of an image generation device for generating a first image of the heart being indicative of the fractional flow reserve of different coronary arteries of the living being and for generating a second image of the heart being indicative of the myocardial perfusion of different portions of the myocardium of the living being,
a processing apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the fractional flow reserve providing unit is adapted to determine the distribution of fractional flow reserve values based on the first image and wherein the myocardial perfusion providing unit is adapted to determine the distribution of myocardial perfusion values based on the second image,
a display for displaying the coronary arteries and/or the portions of the myocardium and for displaying indications being indicative of the determined degrees of correspondence at the respective locations of the coronary arteries and/or of the portions of the myocardium, respectively.

12. A processing method for processing cardiac data of a living being, the processing method comprising:
providing a distribution of fractional flow reserve values being indicative of the fractional flow reserve of different coronary arteries of the living being,
providing a distribution of myocardial perfusion values being indicative of the myocardial perfusion of different portions of the myocardium of the living being,
providing assignments between coronary arteries and portions of the myocardium of the living being, wherein the assignments define which portion of the myocardium is fed by which coronary artery,
determining degrees of correspondence between fractional flow reserve values and myocardial perfusion values based on the distribution of fractional flow reserve values, the distribution of myocardial perfusion values and the assignments between the coronary arteries and portions of th

Assignees

• Koninklijke Philips Nv

Inventors

• Schmitt Holger
• Nickisch Hannes
• Prevrhal Sven

Classifications

• G16H50/30

  for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment · CPC title

• A61B6/503 Primary

  for diagnosis of the heart · CPC title

• A61B6/032

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• A61B6/504

  for diagnosis of blood vessels, e.g. by angiography · CPC title

• A61B6/463

  characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display · CPC title