Virtual Imaging and Visualization of Blood Flow Dynamics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Heart attacks and strokes are caused by cardiovascular diseases that disturb, or are disturbed by, blood flow patterns. These flow patterns are difficult to image or measure directly in patients, which can make it harder for doctors to properly diagnosis and treat these diseases. Our research has sought to overcome this via the integration of medical imaging and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). An essential ingredient has been our development of medical imaging simulations, which allow us to understand how disturbed flow can alter the appearance of arteries and blood flow in the clinical images that we rely on for our CFD models.With the support of NSERC, we have developed new ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) simulation techniques that are both fast and realistic (unlike other approaches, which tend to be one or the other). This allows us to now consider new ways of detecting and correcting for distortions in cardiovascular imaging and modelling, which could ultimately see their way into medical imaging scanners or analysis workstations. Specifically, we will focus on two important problems that have plagued our and others' research: accurate measurement of blood velocities and flow rates by Doppler ultrasound; and automated measurement of blood vessel shape and size from MRI.At the same time, through our collaborations with radiologists and surgeons we have learned that the blood flow visualizations typically provided to them are less interactive or more detailed than they need, making it difficult for them to "see the forest for the trees". Building upon ideas from our medical imaging simulation work, we will develop a new approach for storing and retrieving complex blood flow datasets to allow for real-time interaction; and we will merge principles of fluid mechanics and the graphic arts to highlight only the most relevant flow patterns.