Jens Wetzl

CoroEval: a multi-platform, multi-modality tool for the evaluation of 3D coronary vessel reconstructions

We present a software, called CoroEval, for the evaluation of 3D coronary vessel reconstructions from clinical data. It runs on multiple operating systems and is designed to be independent of the imaging modality used. At this point, its purpose is the comparison of reconstruction algorithms or acquisition protocols, not the clinical diagnosis. Implemented metrics are vessel sharpness and diameter. All measurements are taken from the raw intensity data to be independent of display windowing functions. The user can either import a vessel centreline segmentation from other software, or perform a manual segmentation in CoroEval. An automated segmentation correction algorithm is provided to improve non-perfect centrelines. With default settings, measurements are taken at 1 mm intervals along the vessel centreline and from 10 different angles at each measurement point. This allows for outlier detection and noise-robust measurements without the burden and subjectivity a manual measurement process would incur. Graphical measurement results can be directly exported to vector or bitmap graphics for integration into scientific publications. Centreline and lumen segmentations can be exported as point clouds and in various mesh formats. We evaluated the diameter measurement process using three phantom datasets. An average deviation of 0.03 ± 0.03 mm was found. The software is available in binary and source code form at http://www5.cs.fau.de/CoroEval/.

Single-breath-hold 3-D CINE imaging of the left ventricle using Cartesian sampling

Objectives Our objectives were to evaluate a single-breath-hold approach for Cartesian 3-D CINE imaging of the left ventricle with a nearly isotropic resolution of

High-resolution dynamic CE-MRA of the thorax enabled by iterative TWIST reconstruction

1.9 \times 1.9 \times 2.5\,{\text {mm}^3}

Sharp as a Tack

1.9×1.9×2.5mm3 and a breath-hold duration of

Fast Interpolation of Dense Motion Fields from Synthetic Phantoms

\sim

Improved dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) using iterative data reconstruction

∼19 s against a standard stack of 2-D CINE slices acquired in multiple breath-holds. Validation is performed with data sets from ten healthy volunteers.Materials and methods A Cartesian sampling pattern based on the spiral phyllotaxis and a compressed sensing reconstruction method are proposed to allow 3-D CINE imaging with high acceleration factors. The fully integrated reconstruction uses multiple graphics processing units to speed up the reconstruction. The 2-D CINE and 3-D CINE are compared based on ventricular function parameters, contrast-to-noise ratio and edge sharpness measurements.Results Visual comparisons of corresponding short-axis slices of 2-D and 3-D CINE show an excellent match, while 3-D CINE also allows reformatting to other orientations. Ventricular function parameters do not significantly differ from values based on 2-D CINE imaging. Reconstruction times are below 4 min.ConclusionWe demonstrate single-breath-hold 3-D CINE imaging in volunteers and three example patient cases, which features fast reconstruction and allows reformatting to arbitrary orientations.