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Image Registration-Based Method for Reconstructing Transcatheter Heart Valve Geometry from Patient-Specific CT Scans

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Abstract

Accurate reconstruction of transcatheter aortic valve (TAV) geometries and other stented cardiac devices from computed tomography (CT) images is challenging, mainly associated with blooming artifacts caused by the metallic stents. In addition, bioprosthetic leaflets of TAVs are difficult to segment due to the low signal strengths of the tissues. This paper describes a method that exploits the known device geometry and uses an image registration-based reconstruction method to accurately recover the in vivo stent and leaflet geometries from patient-specific CT images. Error analyses have shown that the geometric error of the stent reconstruction is around 0.1mm, lower than 1/3 of the stent width or most of the CT scan resolutions. Moreover, the method only requires a few human inputs and is robust to input biases. The geometry and the residual stress of the leaflets can be subsequently computed using finite element analysis (FEA) with displacement boundary conditions derived from the registration. Finally, the stress distribution in self-expandable stents can be reasonably estimated by an FEA-based simulation. This method can be used in pre-surgical planning for TAV-in-TAV procedures or for in vivo assessment of surgical outcomes from post-procedural CT scans. It can also be used to reconstruct other medical devices such as coronary stents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 387 Technology Circle | Office 232, Atlanta, GA, 30313-2412, USA

    Huang Chen, Breandan Yeats, Kevin Swamy, Milad Samaee, Sri Krishna Sivakumar, Fateme Esmailie, Atefeh Razavi & Lakshmi Prasad Dasi

  2. Department of Cardiology, Marcus Valve Center, Piedmont Heart Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Pradeep Yadav & Venkateshwar Polsani

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Marcus Valve Center, Piedmont Heart Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Vinod H. Thourani

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  1. Huang Chen
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Correspondence to Lakshmi Prasad Dasi.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. Dasi reports having patent applications filed on novel polymeric valves, vortex generators and superhydrophobic/omniphobic surfaces. Dr. Dasi, Dr. Chen, Dr. Samaee, Dr. Thourani, Dr. Esmailie, Dr. Razavi and Breandan Yeats have patents pending on predictive computational modeling. Dr. Thourani has research or consulting with Abbott Vascular, Boston Scientific, Cryolife, Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, and Shockwave and is a stockholder of DasiSimulations LLC. Dr. Dasi is a co-founder and stockholder of DasiSimulations LLC and YoungHeartValve Inc. No other conflicts were reported.

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Chen, H., Yeats, B., Swamy, K. et al. Image Registration-Based Method for Reconstructing Transcatheter Heart Valve Geometry from Patient-Specific CT Scans. Ann Biomed Eng 50, 805–815 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-02962-9

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