Reconstruction, processing and smoothing of surface geometry of a patient specific ascending aortic aneurysm

Abstract

This work presents the creation of geometric surface models representing the heart chambers and the aorta for two patient specific cases. The first one concerns an acute ascending aortic aneurysm in the anterior Valsalva sinus and the second one a normal aorta for comparison reasons. The surface modelling was implemented in a medical image reconstruction software (Materialise Mimics), based on the computed tomography scans of the patients. For each case, the two atriums and ventricles, the ascending aorta, aortic arch and descending aorta, the pulmonary artery and the superior vena cava were also reconstructed and modelled. Special attention is given to the morphology of the vessels and the heart chambers that are in contact with the ascending aortic aneurysm, due to the acute aneurysmal extension of the Valsalva sinus. A comparison of the non-aneurysmal and the aneurysmal models is necessary to infer whether this disease affects the geometries and/or other vital organs that come in contact with the aortic aneurysm. Special care is given to the surfaces’ smoothing process to preserve the morphology of the structures, avoiding any deviations from the actual geometries of the corresponding vessels and heart chambers.