Medial-ABC: an algorithm for the correspondence between myocardium and coronary artery mesh models based on the medial axis of coronary artery

Abstract

The role of coronary arteries is to supply sufficient blood to myocardium. Obstruction of coronary arteries limits blood supply and causes myocardial ischemia or acute myocardial infarction, a major cause of human death. Hence, the quantification of the regional amount of heart muscle subtended by obstructed coronary arteries is of critical value in clinical medicine. However, conventional methods are inaccurate and frequently disagree with clinical practice. This study proposes a novel medial-axis-based correspondence (Medial-ABC) algorithm to find the correspondence between myocardium and coronary artery in order to segment regional myocardium at risk subtended by any potentially obstructed coronary artery. Given the triangular mesh models of coronary artery and myocardium, the proposed algorithm (i) computes the medial axis of coronary artery, (ii) finds the correspondence using the medial axis of coronary artery, and (iii) segments the coronary artery and myocardium. The proposed algorithm provides a robust mathematical linkage between myocardium at risk and supplying coronary arteries so that ischemic myocardial regions can be accurately identified. Hence, both the extent and severity of myocardial ischemia can be quantified effectively, efficiently, and accurately. Furthermore, the constructed mesh model of segmented coronary artery and myocardium can be post-processed for applications such as building optimization models of cardiac systems. The CardiacVis program, which implements the Medial-ABC algorithm, is freely available at Voronoi Diagram Research Center (http.//voronoi.hanyang.ac.kr/software/cardiacvis) and will be an invaluable tool for quantitative patient-specific risk stratification in clinical practice.