3D-shape formation of blood vessels based on computer aided design system

Abstract

This paper proposes and tests a computerized approach for constructing a 3D model of blood vessels from angiogram images. The approach is divided into two steps, image features extraction and solid model formation. In the first step, image morphological operations and post-processing techniques are used for extracting geometrical entities from the angiogram image. These entities are the middle curve and outer edges of the blood vessel, which are then passed to a computer-aided graphical system for the second phase of processing. The system has embedded programming capabilities and pre-programmed libraries for automating a sequence of events that are exploited to create a solid model of the blood vessel. The gradient of the middle curve is adopted to steer the vessel’s direction, while the cross-sections of the blood vessel are formed as a sequence of circles lying in planes that are orthogonal to the gradients of the middle curves. The radii for the circles are estimated as a distance between the intersection points of the blood vessel edges with the orthogonal plane to the middle curve gradient. The system then uses these circles and the middle curve gradients to produce a solid volume that represents the 3D shape of the blood vessel. The method was tested and evaluated using different cases of angiogram images, and showed a reasonable agreement between the generated shapes and the tested images.