Solutions for Cardiac Imaging

Clinical Challenges

Diagnosis of Cardiac Diseases 

Heart failure due to congenital or acquired heart disease is affecting more than 20 Mio. people worldwide.The causes and disease pathways are however varying and have to be determined to identify the best patient-specific treatment options. Current imaging modalities such as MRI, CT and ultrasound provide the means to examine global and local cardiac bloodflow and function, perfusion, the coronary arteries as well as several aspects of the myocardial tissue state.

Software Support for Integrated Cardiac Image Analysis

Fraunhofer MEVIS develops software solutions for multimodal cardiac image analysis and quantification. Easy-to-use analysis methods are provided for different types of image data such as coronary angiographies, perfusion sequences, T1 maps, phase contrast MRI etc. Image fusion algorithms as well as advanced reporting concepts are provided to enable an integrated assessment of the complementary information derived from the different modalities.

Solutions & Features

Analysis of Myocardial Function and Tissue State

Our software modules combine methods for the analysis of global and local cardiac function as well as the myocardial tissue state based on cardiac MRI and CT data. Provided functionalities for the assessment of global cardiac function include volumetry of cardiac atria and chambers, and PC MRI-based flow and motion quantification. Methods for the inspection of the myocardium include the calculation of local strain and torsion. Furthermore several parameters such as perfusion and T1-relaxivity can be quantified and used to classify tissue.

 

Multicycle Realtime MRI Analysis

For the inspection of changes in cardiac function due to influences such as breathing or arrhythmia, Fraunhofer MEVIS provides advanced segmentation and exploration techniques. These enable the automatic calculation of functional cardiac parameters per heart cycle as well as their variation over time.

Get more information on Multicycle Realtime MRI Analysis - CaFuR Technology

Fused inspection of coronary CTA and delayed enhancement MRI

Coronary Artery Assessment 

According to the MICCAI Challenge the vessel tracking algorithm by Fraunhofer MEVIS is the most accurate approach. This centerline extraction forms the basis for an advanced coronary artery analysis.

 

Software Features

Integration

  • Available as an OsiriX plugin
  • Standalone Windows application
  • Web-based solution

 

Analysis Methods

  • T1, T2 and T2* mapping
  • Quantification of delayed enhancement and edema
  • Blood pool quantification
  • Analysis of local deformation
  • Flow analysis
  • Quantitative analysis of multicycle measurements
CAIPI software module heart analysis bloodflow heartchambers
© Fraunhofer MEVIS
CAIPI software module showing the quantitative analysis of bloodflow, heartchambers and myocardial T1 relaxivity

Advanced Exploration

  • 3D overview: spatial relations of inspected datasets
  • Spatio-temporal synchronization of presented image data
  • Exploration of variation in datasets acquired over multiple heart cycles

Highlights

  • CAIPI: OsiriX Plugin for Multimodal Cardiac Image Analysis
  • Analysis of Realtime MRI Data
  • Challenge-winning Coronary Artery Tracking Algorithm
  • Modular Web Applications
  • Analysis of Myocardial Deformation and Tissue Parameters