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Cardiac Image Analysis

Magnetic resonance imaging is increasingly used for the evaluation of the cardiovascular system. Often, during a cardiac MR examination multiple scan techniques are applied in order to assess several morphological and functional aspects resulting in a huge amount of images obtained in a single imaging session. MRI is highly suited for quantitative evaluation of the cardiac or vascular status of the patient. The research in the MRI section focuses at the development of new automated quantitative image analysis methods for these cardiovascular MR imaging studies.

Currently, the research is in the following areas:

1. new contour detection techniques for the detection of the left and right ventricular boundaries.
2. segmentation techniques for Magnetic Resonance Angiography and vessel wall MRI studies.
3. new techniques for the assessment of trans-valvular flow and ventricular wall motion using velocity-encoded MRI.
4. fluid dynamic modeling approaches to assess the flow distribution in carotid arteries.
5. new techniques for accurate quantification of functional ventricular parameters.

Projects

• Quantification of cardiac ventricular function using MR Imaging (MRI) and Multi Slice Computed Tomography (MASS)
• Automated Evaluation of Vascular MR Image data
• Automated quantification of vessel wall MR imaging studies (VesselMASS)
• Image analysis for 4D MR velocity mapping
• Multi-sequence MRI Carotid Artery Wall Analysis
• Image analysis for whole-body MR imaging
• Automated left and right ventricular contour detection in cardiac MR and CT using Active Appearance Models (AAM)
• Accurate and Reproducible Mitral Valvular Blood Flow Measurement and Quantification of Regurgitation with Three-Directional Velocity-Encoded Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• MRI to Evaluate Left Ventricular and Left Atrial Reverse Remodeling after Restrictive Mitral Valve Repair
• Multi-Vis: A Multi-modal Visualisation Environment for Interactive Analysis of Medical Data
• Development of a fully automatic 3D segmentation and quantification method for analyzing myocardial function
• Automated quantification of velocity and flow in blood vessels using velocity-encoded cine MRI
• Acquisition and analysis of magnetic resonance angiographic imaging studies
• Quantification and visualization of vascular structures from Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA)
• Non-invasive 3D assessment of Wall Shear Stress profiles in carotid arteries for cardiovascular risk factor analyses and prevention
• Assessment of Left Ventricular Dyssynchrony with Velocity-Encoded MRI

Software

Several of the image analysis software algorithms that were developed within our group have been transferred to industry for integration into commercially available clinical end products. Additionally, research software tools developed within the team are widely used in clinical research by numerous national and international centers. Software tools have been developed enabling rapid development of dedicated deep learning models for a specific type of imaging data. Imaging data from large cohort studies can be fully automatically processed using mode processing. The close interaction with research groups often results in opportunities for new research projects granted by national or international funding agencies.

MASS	A comprehensive software package for the quantitative analysis of cardiovascular MR imaging studies, including analysis of LV function, strain, perfusion, late-enhancement, T1/T2 mapping and intra-cardiac flow analysis of 4D flow MRI
FLOW	A tool for quantitative flow analysis from standard 2D phase-contrast MRI
VesselMass	Software for the quantitative analysis of vessel wall morphology and plaque components
LAVA	Software for 3D segmentation and quantification of vascular structures from TOF and MRA image data

People

	Rob van der Geest	Team lead
	Patrick de Koning	Scientific Software Engineer
	Li-Hsin Cheng	Postdoc