Simultaneous multi-phase coronary CT angiography analysis for coronary artery disease evaluation

Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) is becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). Cardiac MDCT scan generally allows for reconstruction of several frames/phases in the cardiac cycle. The reconstructed images are then used to create curved multi-planar reformation (MPR) views wherein coronary lesions are best diagnosed. However, the generation of such MPR views for all potentially reconstructed phases is tedious and time consuming. Therefore, only a single phase is commonly used for diagnosis which may reduce the overall diagnostic accuracy. In the current work, we propose a new method that enable diagnosis of lesions from all reconstructed phases on a common MPR view simultaneously. Our method extracts the coronary centerline in one phase only. Next, it performs a fast registration of a region of interest between the multiple phases. Finally, the multiple phases are aligned to the MPR view and the clinician is able to review the multiple phases simultaneously. Our experiments indicate that the analysis time of multi-phase coronary CTA data can be reduced to less than 30% of the currently required time using our method.