Determining cardiac wall thickness and motion by imaging and

Abstract

A method for imaging and three-dimensional modeling portions of the heart, particularly the left ventricular endocardial and epicardial surfaces, using imaging data. Preferably, a transesophageal ultrasound probe is inserted into an esophagus of a patient to provide multiple plane imaging data at end systole and end diastole during a cardiac cycle. The image planes are then traced along the boundaries of the epicardial and endocardial surfaces to produce sets of data points, which are further processed and expanded through interpolation. These data points are used for modeling the endocardial and epicardial surface at the end systole and end diastole extremes of the cardiac cycle. A center surface is constructed between an inner and outer surface of the modeled surfaces of the left ventricle and either an average template of tiled sections is mapped onto this center surface, or a mesh of triangular tiled sections representing the inner surface is projected on the center surface to define corresponding numbered tiled sections on the center surface. The tiled sections of the center surface are then projected onto the inner and outer surfaces, defining triangular prisms. By determining the volume of the triangular prisms and an average area for their ends, the range of movement, which is equal to the volume divided by the average area, is determined. Similarly, for changes in wall thickness between the endocardial and epicardial surfaces at end diastole and end systole, the thickening of the cardiac wall is determined.