Anisotropic diffusion segmentation for the quantification of mitral regurgitation using proximal flow convergence method

Abstract

A comprehensive assessment of valvular incompetence remains as an important goal in clinical cardiology now a days. The precise measurement of regurgitant volume in patients with mitral regurgitation is significant for evaluating the progression of the disease which can then determine the optimal time for surgical repair or replacement. This paper portrays color space conversion and anisotropic diffusion segmentation method in the pre-processing stage of the quantification of mitral regurgitation and for flow field measurements we employed proximal flow convergence method. From the segmented image we calculate the percentage of backward flow of blood. In the case of mitral regurgitation, quantitative left ventriculography has the potential to calculate the regurgitant volume, regurgitant orifice area, and regurgitant flow rate. It has been exposed previously that when color flow Doppler mapping is used, simple measurements of apparent jet size do not correlate intimately with regurgitant flow rate and regurgitant fraction. At present the proximal flow convergence method has been exploited to quantify valvular regurgitation by the analysis of the converging flow field proximal to a regurgitant lesion. Color Doppler visualization of the flow convergence region is a method that appears promising for providing a calculated value of flow rate, regurgitant orifice area and the regurgitant volume for a regurgitant orifice in the cardiovascular system. This research uses the Doppler ultrasonography image for further investigation and analysis.