<title>Functional imaging as an indicator of diagnostic information in cardiac magnetic-resonance images</title>

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance (MR) images of the human heart provide three dimensional geometric information about the location of cardiac structures throughout the cardiac cycle. Analysis of this four dimensional data set allows detection of abnormal cardiac function related to the presence of coronary artery disease. To assist in this analysis, quantitative measurements of cardiac performance are made from the MR data including ejection fractions, regional wall motion and myocardial wall thickening. Analysis of cardiac performance provided by quantitative analysis of MR data can be aided by computer graphics presentation techniques. Two and three dimensional functional images are computed to indicate regions of abnormality based on the previous methods. The two dimensional images are created using color graphics overlays on the original MR image to represent performance. Polygon surface modeling techniques are used to represent data which is three dimensional, such as blood pool volumes. The surface of these images are color encoded by regional ejection fraction, wall motion or wall thickening. A functional image sequence is constructed at each phase of the cardiac cycle and displayed as a movie loop for review by the physician. Selection of a region on the functional image allows visual interpretation of the original MR images, graphical plots of cardiac function and tabular results. Color encoding is based on absolute measurements and comparison to standard normal templates of cardiac performance.© (1990) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.