Selection Strategies for Atlas-Based Mosaicing of Left Atrial 3-D Transesophageal Echocardiography Data.

Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) provides real-time soft tissue information, but its use is hampered by its limited field of view. The mosaicing of multiple TEE views makes it possible to visualize a large structure, like the left atrium, in a single volume. To this end, an automatic registration method is required.

Atlas-Based Mosaicing of Left Atrial 3-D Transesophageal Echocardiography Images.

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is a promising imaging modality used to guide cardiac interventions, such as catheter ablation for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. These procedures rely on good visualization of the left atrium and pulmonary veins. To visualize these structures in a single volume, the acquisition, registration and fusion of multiple TEE views of the left atrium are required.

Segmentation of multiple heart cavities in 3-D transesophageal ultrasound images.

Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an excellent modality for real-time visualization of the heart and monitoring of interventions. To improve the usability of 3-D TEE for intervention monitoring and catheter guidance, automated segmentation is desired. However, 3-D TEE segmentation is still a challenging task due to the complex anatomy with multiple cavities, the limited TEE field of view, and typical ultrasound artifacts.

Improved Segmentation of Multiple Cavities of the Heart in Wide-View 3-D Transesophageal Echocardiograms.

Minimally invasive interventions in the heart such as in electrophysiology are becoming more and more important in clinical practice. Currently, preoperative computed tomography angiography (CTA) is used to provide anatomic information during electrophysiology interventions, but this does not provide real-time feedback and burdens the patient with additional radiation and side effects of the contrast agent. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an excellent modality for visualization of anatomic structures and instruments in real time, but some cavities, especially the left atrium, suffer from the limited coverage of the 3-D TEE volumes.

Multiframe registration of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography time series.

Mosaicing of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3-DE) images aims at extending the field-of-view of overlapping images. Currently available methods discard most of the temporal information available in the time series. We investigate the added value of simultaneous registration of multiple temporal frames using common similarity metrics.

A transoesophageal echocardiographic image acquisition protocol for wide-view fusion of three-dimensional datasets to support atrial fibrillation catheter ablation.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) image acquisition protocol which provides a systematic manner of acquiring a minimal number of overlapping 3D TOE datasets allowing the reconstruction of a wide 3D view of the left atrium (LA) with anatomical landmarks that are important for atrial fibrillation catheter ablation.

Methods: In eight cardiac surgical patients, 3D TOE datasets were acquired with a six-step protocol. In the protocol, step 1 aims to acquire the central view of the mitral valve (MV), aortic valve (AV) and left atrial appendage (LAA).

Migration of intervertebral disc cells into dense collagen scaffolds intended for functional replacement.

Invasion of cells from surrounding tissues is a crucial step for regeneration when using a-cellular scaffolds as a replacement of the nucleus pulposus (NP). The aim of current study was to assess whether NP and surrounding annulus fibrosus (AF) cells are capable of migrating into dense collagen scaffolds. We seeded freshly harvested caprine NP and AF cells onto scaffolds consisting of 1.