Simultaneous detection of both coronary borders.

A method for simultaneous detection of both coronary borders that is based on three-dimensional graph searching principles is presented. The simultaneous method and the authors' previously reported conventional method were applied to 29 coronary images, of which 19 were selected because conventional methods might be expected to have difficulty. Coronary borders identified by the two methods were visually compared. In the 19 difficult images, simultaneous border detection yielded superior results in 7 images and equivalent results in 12 images. Superior or equivalent results were obtained in the remaining 10 typical images. In a set of 43 uncomplicated images, minimal lumen diameters derived using simultaneous border detection correlated well with diameters derived using conventional border detection (r=0.97), diameters obtained from observer-defined borders (r=0.91), and diameters obtained using the Brown-Dodge quantitative coronary arteriography method (r=0.85). Thus simultaneous detection of left and right coronary borders provides improved accuracy in the detection of vessel borders in difficult coronary angiograms.

Automated analysis of coronary arterial morphology in cineangiograms: geometric and physiologic validation in humans.

A method of coronary border identification is discussed that is based on graph searching principles and is applicable to the broad spectrum of angiographic image quality observed clinically. Cine frames from clinical coronary angiograms were optically magnified, digitized, and graded for image quality. Minimal lumen diameters, referenced to catheter size, were derived from automatically identified coronary borders and compared to those defined using quantitative coronary arteriography and to observer-traced borders. computer-derived minimal lumen diameters were also compared to intracoronary measurements of coronary vasodilator reserve, a measure of the functional significance of a coronary obstruction. To test the robustness of the present border detection method, computer-derived coronary borders were compared to independent standards separately for good and poor angiographic images. The accuracy of computer-identified borders was similar in the two cases.