Estimating cardiac fiber orientations in pig hearts using registered ultrasound and MR image volumes

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: James D. Dormer, Emory University; Yuguang Meng, Emory University; Xiaodong Zhang, Emory University; Rong Jiang, Emory University; Mary Wagner, Emory University; Baowei Fei, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-01-01
• Publisher: Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © COPYRIGHT SPIE.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2255515
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Proceedings of SPIE
• ISSN: 0277-786X
• Volume: 10139
• Grant/Funding Information: This research is supported in part by NIH grants (CA176684, CA15 6775, and CA204254) and a pilot grant from the Children’s Heart Research and Outcomes Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
• Keywords: cardiac fiber orientation; deformable registration; ultrasound imaging; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Optics; Science & Technology; cardiac fiber imaging; image registration; heart disease; Physical Sciences; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (MR-DTI)
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

Heart fiber mechanics can be important predictors in current and future cardiac function. Accurate knowledge of these mechanics could enable cardiologists to provide a diagnosis before conditions progress. Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (MR-DTI) has been used to determine cardiac fiber orientations. Ultrasound is capable of providing anatomical information in real time, enabling a physician to quickly adjust parameters to optimize image scans. If known fiber orientations from a template heart measured using DTI can be accurately deformed onto a cardiac ultrasound volume, fiber orientations could be estimated for the patient without the need for a costly MR scan while still providing cardiologists valuable information about the heart mechanics. In this study, we apply the method to pig hearts, which are a close representation of human heart anatomy. Experiments from pig hearts show that the registration method achieved an average Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of 0.819 ± 0.050 between the ultrasound and deformed MR volumes and that the proposed ultrasound-based method is able to estimate the cardiac fiber orientation in pig hearts.