Atlases and statistical modeling of vascular networks from medical images

统计地图集是模拟种群内个体间变异性的强大工具。从健康人群建立的图谱允许人们定义感兴趣的解剖结构的正常性，并有效地检测病理病例中的异常。这项研究计划的总体目标是开发新的计算工具来构建血管网络的统计图谱。这些工具将被应用于眼科和心脏病学，以客观地定义血管异常，并更好地了解它们在眼科和心血管疾病中的确切作用。此外，鉴于血管疾病的全身性，眼睛代表着身体中一个独特的位置，可以非侵入性地显示血管，并可用作心脏的自然窗口。因此，我们将探讨视网膜微血管异常与心血管异常之间的关系。短期目标是：OBJ 1)根据健康人群的眼底图像建立并验证视网膜血管网络的统计图谱；OBJ 2)从多视角血管造影序列建立并验证冠状动脉网络的统计图谱；OBJ 3)展示这些血管图谱在了解受心血管疾病影响的人群中视网膜血管的拓扑/形态变化与冠状动脉功能变化之间的相关性方面的有用性。*长期愿景是通过促进失明预防和生活方式干预的心血管疾病风险分层来促进医疗保健的范式转变。本届总干事的成果将是迈向这一目标的第一步。长期目标将是使用建议的图谱对个体视网膜血管随时间的变化进行非侵入性评估。需要精确和准确的分析方法来自动检测视网膜微血管网络在症状前期与眼部或心血管疾病的表现相关的细微但显著的变化。*我们相信，我们的计划将在血管网络的计算建模方面取得重大进展。这项研究计划将解决开发视网膜血管网络和冠状动脉统计图谱的重大技术挑战。这些模型将提供强大的工具，使人们能够及早发现血管网络的拓扑、形态和功能的细微变化。眼科疾病是劳动年龄人口中最常见的致盲原因，而心血管疾病仍然是北美最主要的死亡原因。因此，拟议的研究将通过预防严重的、甚至危及生命的健康状况，为加拿大的医疗保健系统以及经济和社会带来显著的成本节约。

Statistical atlases are powerful tools for modeling inter-individual variability within a population. An atlas built from a healthy population allows one to define the normality of the anatomical structures of interest and to efficiently detect the abnormalities in pathological cases. The overall objective of this research program is to develop novel computational tools for constructing statistical atlases of vascular networks. These tools will be applied in ophthalmology and in cardiology to objectively define vascular abnormalities and better understand their exact role in ocular and cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, given the systemic nature of vascular diseases, the eye represents a unique location in the body to visualize blood vessels non-invasively and can be used as a natural window to the heart. Thus, the relationship between microvascular abnormalities in the retina and cardiovascular abnormalities will be explored. The short-term objectives are: OBJ 1) build and validate a statistical atlas of retinal vessel networks from fundus images in healthy populations; OBJ 2) build and validate a statistical atlas of coronary artery networks from multi-view angiographic sequences; OBJ 3) demonstrate the usefulness of these vascular atlases in understanding the correlation between topological / morphological changes in retinal vessels and functional changes in coronary arteries in a population affected by cardiovascular disease.***The long-term vision is to contribute to a paradigm shift in healthcare by promoting blindness prevention and cardiovascular diseases risk stratification for lifestyle intervention. The outcome of this DG will be the first step toward that goal. The long-term objective will be to use the proposed atlases in the non-invasive assessment of an individual's retinal vascular changes over time. Precise and accurate analysis methods will be required to automatically detect subtle but significant changes in retinal microvascular networks related to manifestations of ocular or cardiovascular diseases in the pre-symptomatic stages.***We believe that our program will lead to major advances in computational modeling of vascular networks. This research program will address significant technical challenges to develop statistical atlases of the retinal vessel network and the coronary arteries. These models will provide powerful tools that will allow an early detection of subtle changes in the topology, morphology and functionality of vascular networks. Ocular diseases are the most common cause of blindness in the working-age population, while cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of death in North America. Thus, the proposed research will lead to significant cost savings to the Canadian healthcare system and to the economy and society by preventing serious, even life-threatening, health conditions.**