Francisco Sureda

The 6σ quality approach for quantitative arteriography performance improvement

Quantitative angiography is a medical application where the user requires tools whose operational results in term of accuracy, precision, robustness and reliability must be extensively assessed and validated for clinical use. In this study, the 6σ methodology has been applied to analyze the performances of the General Electric QA software method. In particular, the catheter calibration procedure was identified as the weakest function in term of sensitivity to procedure parameters, like point-spread-function, field-of-view, catheter dimensions. It was therefore improved by following a design for 6σ scheme, and the main parameters that govern the QA accuracy and precision were put under quantifiable control.

Evaluation of a new method for stenosis quantification from 3D x-ray angiography images

A new method for stenosis quantification from 3D X-ray angiography images has been evaluated on both phantom and clinical data. On phantoms, for the parts larger or equal to 3 mm, the standard deviation of the measurement error has always found to be less or equal to 0.4 mm, and the maximum measurement error less than 0.17 mm. No clear relationship has been observed between the performances of the quantification method and the acquisition FoV. On clinical data, the 3D quantification method proved to be more robust to vessel bifurcations than its 3D equivalent. On a total of 15 clinical cases, the differences between 2D and 3D quantification were always less than 0.7 mm. The conclusion is that stenosis quantification from 3D X-4ay angiography images is an attractive alternative to quantification from 2D X-ray images.