Ciné imaging of coronary vessels using fused CT angiography and 3D rotational angiography images

1. An X-ray medical imaging system comprising:

a computed tomography angiography (CTA) device configured to generate a three-dimensional computed tomography angiography (3D CTA) data in a reference cardiac phase of coronary vessels in which calcium deposits contained therein are visible;

a three-dimensional rotational angiography (3DRA) device configured to generate 3DRA data of the coronary vessels in which calcium deposits contained therein are invisible and contrast agent contained therein is visible;

a medical imaging device configured to:

extract a first 3D vessel map from the 3D CTA data corresponding to the reference cardiac phase, the first 3D vessel map from the 3D CTA data including the coronary vessels and the calcium deposits;

extract second 3D vessel maps from the 3DRA data corresponding to a plurality of cardiac phases that includes the reference cardiac phase, the second 3D vessel maps including the coronary vessels;

register a second 3D vessel map of the second 3D vessel maps with the first 3D vessel map from the 3D CTA data, the second 3D vessel map corresponding to the reference cardiac phase, to align the coronary vessels in the second 3D vessel map in the reference cardiac phase with the coronary vessels in the first 3D vessel map in the reference cardiac phase;

register the second 3D vessel map of the second 3D vessel maps with other second 3D vessel maps of the second 3D vessel maps, the other second 3D vessel maps corresponding to other cardiac phases of the plurality of cardiac phases, to estimate motion of the coronary vessels relative to the reference cardiac phase over the plurality of cardiac phases;

warp the first 3D vessel map to the second 3D vessel maps corresponding to the plurality of cardiac phases based on the estimated motion of the coronary vessels relative to the reference cardiac phase to generate a plurality of first warped 3D vessel maps, each first warped 3D vessel map corresponding to another cardiac phase of the plurality of cardiac phases; and

merge each one of the plurality of the first warped 3D vessel maps with each of the second 3D vessel maps to generate a plurality of merged vessel maps in the plurality of cardiac phases.

2. The x-ray imaging system according to claim 1 , wherein the CTA device and the 3DRA device are a common rotational C-arm x-ray device.

3. A method for medical imaging of coronary vessels, the method comprising the steps of:

extracting a first 3D vessel map from 3D computed tomography angiography (CTA) data corresponding to a reference cardiac phase, the first 3D vessel map from the 3D CTA data including coronary vessels;

extracting second 3D vessel maps from three-dimensional rotational angiography (3DRA) data corresponding to a plurality of cardiac phases that include the reference cardiac phase, the second 3D vessel maps including the coronary vessels;

registering a second 3D vessel map of the second 3D vessel maps with the first 3D vessel map from the CTA data, the second 3D vessel map corresponding to the reference cardiac phase, to align the coronary vessels in the second 3D vessel map in the reference cardiac phase with the coronary vessels in the first 3D vessel map in the reference cardiac phase;

registering the second 3D vessel map of the second 3D vessel maps with other second 3D vessel maps of the second 3D vessel maps, the other second 3D vessel maps corresponding to other cardiac phases of the plurality of cardiac phases, to estimate motion of the coronary vessels relative to the reference cardiac phase over the plurality of cardiac phases;

warping the first 3D vessel map corresponding to the plurality of cardiac phases based on the estimated motion of the coronary vessels relative to the reference cardiac phase to generate a plurality of first warped 3D vessel maps, each first warped 3D vessel map corresponding to another cardiac phase of the plurality of cardiac phases; and

merging each one of the plurality of first warped 3D vessel maps with the second 3D vessel maps to generate a plurality of merged vessel maps in the plurality of cardiac phases.

4. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 3 ,

wherein the reference cardiac phase is a diastole of a cardiac cycle.

5. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 3 , wherein the second 3D vessel maps are contrast enhanced images in which calcium deposits are not visible and wherein the merging adds calcium deposits visible in the first 3D vessel map to the second 3D vessel maps.

6. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 3 ,

wherein merging the first warped 3D vessel map with the second 3D vessel maps is conducted by aligning common branches of the coronary vessels.

7. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 6 ,

wherein the step of merging the first warped 3D vessel map with the second vessel maps includes applying successively estimated motions.

8. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 7 , wherein the merging includes:

adding calcified parts of the coronary vessels, visible in the first 3D vessel map, to the coronary vessels of the set of second 3D vessel maps.

9. The method for medical imaging of coronary vessels according to claim 8 ,

wherein the method further comprises the step of visualizing the plurality of merged vessel maps of the coronary vessels.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program which, when run on a data processor, performs the method according to claim 3 .

11. A data processor programmed to perform the method according to claim 3 .