A simplified method for densitometric determination of vessel stenosis from angiographic images

Abstract

Purpose: There is a need for a simple densitometric method to determine the degree of area stenosis from single-plane angiographic images. The method should not require the luminal cross-section to have a regular shape.Methods: Solid rods were made from children’s ‘play-doh’ and were used to simulate contrast-filled blood vessels of differing cross-sectional areas and shapes. Intensity profiles were taken from fluoroscopic images of the rods, perpendicular to their lengths, and the areas below the background levels of the profiles were measured and compared with the physical cross-sectional areas of the rods.Results: The ratio of the physical cross-sectional areas, and thus the degree of stenosis, can be obtained accurately from the densitometric areas of the intensity profiles below the background intensity levels independently of the shape of the cross-section.Conclusions: The proposed method is a convenient way of determining the degree of stenosis in a vessel, and is simpler to implement than previously described methods. It requires only a single projection, is independent of the shape of the luminal morphology and does not require observer localization of the luminal edges. \\