Contractile Analysis with Kriging Based on MR Myocardial Velocity Imaging

Abstract

Abstract. Diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease requires a full understanding of the intrinsic contractile mechanics of the heart. MR myocardial velocity imaging is a promising technique for revealing intramural cardiac motion but its ability to depict 3D strain tensor distribution is constrained by anisotropic voxel coverage of velocity imaging due to limited imaging slices and the achievable SNR in patient studies. This paper introduces a novel Kriging estimator for simultaneously improving the tracking and dense inter-slice estimation of the myocardial velocity data. A harmonic embedding technique is employed to determine point correspondence between left ventricle models between subjects, allowing for a statistical shape model to be reconstructed. The use of different semivariograms is investigated for optimal deformation reconstruction. Results from in vivo data demonstrate a marked improvement in tracking myocardial deformation, thus enhancing the potential clinical value of MR myocardial velocity imaging.

In vivo and in situ image guidance and modelling in robotic assisted surgery

“…To control the deformation in 3D, a volume constraint is introduced, as the volume of cardiac muscle varies little across the cardiac cycle. Lee et al [17] extended that work to incorporate the kernel-partial least squares regression to reduce the search space for the nodal deformation and to integrate the Kriging estimator [18]. Figure 2 shows results from this work as well as examples of the MR velocity images of the myocardium.…”

Solenoidal filtering of volumetric velocity measurements using Gaussian process regression

“…In the context of reconstructing measured velocity fields using GPR, previous works took the route of reconstructing the velocity components independently from each other, precluding enforcement of the mass conservation equation or other physical constraints (de Baar et al 2014;Gunes and Rist 2008;Inggs and Lord 1996;Lee et al 2008). In these works, the state is chosen as where u k are the Cartesian velocity components.…”