Simulation environment of X-ray rotational angiography using 3D+t coronary tree model.

The newly introduced cardiac rotational angiography (RA) can provide a large amount of projections from different angles which greatly improve the 3D coronary tree reconstruction. However, the reconstruction methods are difficult to be objectively evaluated due to the complicated topology of coronary tree and non-linear cardiac motion. In this paper, we present a simulation environment of rotational angiography acquisition system to facilitate the improvements and the evaluations of reconstruction algorithms. A 3D+t coronary tree model reconstructed from MSCT sequence is employed to enhance the reality of simulation. A simulation environment of X-ray coronary angiography is developed based on distance-driven projection algorithm. The static angiography is firstly simulated to verify the dynamic model by comparing the displacements of landmarks with the real static angiography of the same patient. Rotational simulation results are then obtained with real system parameters to provide a complete and true-to-life RA sequence representing the morphology of moving coronary tree.