Interactive Virtual Probing of 4D MRI Blood-Flow

Roy van Pelt, Javier Oliván Bescós, Marcel Breeuwer, R.E. Clough, Meister Eduard Gröller, Bart ter Haar Romeny, Anna Vilanova
Interactive Virtual Probing of 4D MRI Blood-Flow
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 17(12):2153-2162, December 2011. [ Paper]
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Abstract

Better understanding of hemodynamics conceivably leads to improved diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, an elaborate analysis of the blood-flow in heart and thoracic arteries is essential. Contemporary MRI techniques enable acquisition of quantitative time-resolved flow information, resulting in 4D velocity fields that capture the blood-flow behavior. Visual exploration of these fields provides comprehensive insight into the unsteady blood-flow behavior, and precedes a quantitative analysis of additional blood-flow parameters. The complete inspection requires accurate segmentation of anatomical structures, encompassing a time-consuming and hard-to-automate process, especially for malformed morphologies. We present a way to avoid the laborious segmentation process in case of qualitative inspection, by introducing an interactive virtual probe. This probe is positioned semi-automatically within the blood-flow field, and serves as a navigational object for visual exploration. The difficult task of determining position and orientation along the view-direction is automated by a fitting approach, aligning the probe with the orientations of the velocity field. The aligned probe provides an interactive seeding basis for various flow visualization approaches. We demonstrate illustration-inspired particles, integral lines and integral surfaces, conveying distinct characteristics of the unsteady blood-flow. Lastly, we present the results of an evaluation with domain experts, valuing the practical use of our probe and flow visualization techniques.

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@article{Groeller_2011_IVP,
  title =      "Interactive Virtual Probing of 4D MRI Blood-Flow",
  author =     "Roy van Pelt and Javier Oliv{\'a}n Besc{\'o}s and
               Marcel Breeuwer and R.E. Clough and Meister Eduard
               Gr{\"o}ller and Bart ter Haar Romeny and Anna Vilanova",
  year =       "2011",
  abstract =   "Better understanding of hemodynamics conceivably leads to
               improved diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases.
               Therefore, an elaborate analysis of the blood-flow in heart
               and thoracic arteries is essential. Contemporary MRI
               techniques enable acquisition of quantitative time-resolved
               flow information, resulting in 4D velocity fields that
               capture the blood-flow behavior. Visual exploration of these
               fields provides comprehensive insight into the unsteady
               blood-flow behavior, and precedes a quantitative analysis of
               additional blood-flow parameters. The complete inspection
               requires accurate segmentation of anatomical structures,
               encompassing a time-consuming and hard-to-automate process,
               especially for malformed morphologies. We present a way to
               avoid the laborious segmentation process in case of
               qualitative inspection, by introducing an interactive
               virtual probe. This probe is positioned semi-automatically
               within the blood-flow field, and serves as a navigational
               object for visual exploration. The difficult task of
               determining position and orientation along the
               view-direction is automated by a fitting approach, aligning
               the probe with the orientations of the velocity field. The
               aligned probe provides an interactive seeding basis for
               various flow visualization approaches. We demonstrate
               illustration-inspired particles, integral lines and integral
               surfaces, conveying distinct characteristics of the unsteady
               blood-flow. Lastly, we present the results of an evaluation
               with domain experts, valuing the practical use of our probe
               and flow visualization techniques.",
  pages =      "2153--2162",
  month =      dec,
  number =     "12",
  issn =       "1077 - 2626",
  journal =    "IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics",
  volume =     "17",
  URL =        "http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2011/Groeller_2011_IVP/",
}