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. 2022 Mar 6;12(3):411.
doi: 10.3390/jpm12030411.

CoroFinder: A New Tool for Real Time Detection and Tracking of Coronary Arteries in Contrast-Free Cine-Angiography

Paolo Zaffino  1 , Maria Francesca Spadea  1 , Ciro Indolfi  2   3 , Salvatore De Rosa  2
Affiliations

CoroFinder: A New Tool for Real Time Detection and Tracking of Coronary Arteries in Contrast-Free Cine-Angiography

Paolo Zaffino et al. J Pers Med. .

Abstract

Coronary Angiography (CA) is the standard of reference to diagnose coronary artery disease. Yet, only a portion of the information it conveys is usually used. Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA) reliably contributes to improving the measurable assessment of CA. In this work, we developed a new software, CoroFinder, able to automatically identify epicardial coronary arteries and to dynamically track the vessel profile in dye-free frames. The coronary tree is automatically segmented by Frangi's filter in the angiogram's frames where vessels are contrasted ("template frames"). Afterward, the image similarity among each template frame and the dye-free images is scored by cross-correlation. Finally, each dye-free image is associated with the most similar template frame, resulting in an estimation of vessel contour. CoroFinder allows locating the position of coronary arteries in absence of contrast dye. The developed algorithm is robust to diverse vessel curvatures, variation of vessel widths, and the presence of stenoses. This article describes the newly developed CoroFinder algorithm and the associated software and provides an overview of its potential application in research and for translation to the clinic.

Keywords: coronary angiography; coronary artery calcifications; geometric modeling; tracking.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The figure shows the logical workflow behind the software’s graphical interface.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graphical appearance of the CoroFinder software. In particular, the main page is depicted in the figure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Exemplary frames showing side by side the results of CoroFinder-mediated prediction of vessel position in the right column (the yellow contour indicates the predicted location of the coronary artery) and the segmented contours from standard contrast-enhanced angiograms in the left column (the green contour lines indicate the location of coronary arteries as determined by contrast dye presence). The panel includes three angiographic projections of the left coronary artery: antero-posterior caudal view (first row), left anterior oblique caudal view (second row), right anterior oblique caudal view (third row), and a single angiographic projection of the right coronary artery: left anterior oblique view (fourth row).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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