Reconstruction of Three-Dimensional Geometry of the Vessels by Computed Tomography Data

Abstract

We consider algorithms of 3D reconstruction for the internal surface of cardiac vessels. The precise reconstruction of vessel geometry is necessary for the creating a hydrodynamic model of blood supply for the heart and computing various parameters of blood flow. To compute a triangulation of blood vessel walls, we use the combination of two methods. At the first stage we apply the 3D seeded region growing algorithm to reconstruct a set of voxels inside vessels. At the second stage we use the isosurface reconstruction algorithm based on the tessellation of 3D space into small tetrahedral cells. We use the tetrahedral mesh, which was proposed in the works of S. Chan, E. Purisima (1998), and V. Skala (2000). Tetrahedra in this mesh are constructed on common faces of adjacent cubes in a cubic lattice, so it fits well with the voxel model. The mesh is constructed only in the neighborhood of the border of voxel set obtained at the first stage as the result of seeded region growing algorithms.