ABSTRACT

CONTENTS 10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 10.2 Vessel Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 10.3 IVUS Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 10.4 Segmentation of IVUS Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402 10.5 Texture Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412 10.6 Image-Guided Stent Positioning and Follow-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 10.7 Need for Volumetric Measurements and Real

Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Vessel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 10.8 Angiogram Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 10.9 Extraction of Three-Dimensional Measurements

from Angiograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 10.10 IVUS and Angiogram Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434 10.11 IVUS for Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 10.12 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Heart attack and stroke are the major causes of human death in the Western world; almost twice as many people die from cardiovascular diseases as from all forms of cancer [1]. Every 20 seconds a European citizen experiences a mortal heart attack; every year, 500,000 persons die due to cardiac diseases.