Ying Sun - Medical Imaging - Stenosis Quantification

Coronary arteriogram is a sequence of x-ray imagery of a coronary artery or arteries, obtained during the injection of an x-ray contrast agent via a catheter positioned in the coronary artery or the aorta. We have developed a computer algorithm that automatically tracks a vessel segment in a coronary arteriogram, measures lumen width along the vessel centerline, and quantifies the severity of the coronary stenosis, if it exists. This tracking algorithm and similar implementations based on the same concept have been used in commercial digital angiographic systems, such as CineMac (Angiographic Device Corporation, Littleton, Massachusetts). An edge-preserving smoothing technique, called directional low-pass filter, has also been developed to achieve sub-pixel resolution in the lumen-width measurement.

Relevant Journal Publications

• Y. Sun. "Automated identification of vessel contours in coronary arteriograms by an adaptive tracking algorithm," IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging 8: 78-88, 1989.
• Y. Sun. "Spatial frequency characteristics of vessel geometry and densitometry in coronary arteriograms," Optical Eng. 29: 1255-1259, 1990.
• Y. Sun, R.J. Lucariello, and S.A. Chiaramida. "Directional low-pass filtering for improved accuracy and reproducibility of stenosis quantification in coronary angiograms," IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging 14: 242-248, 1995.

• Y. Sun, R.J. Lucariello, and S.A. Chiaramida. "Edge-preserved smoothing: application to stenosis quantification in digital coronary arteriograms." 5th Far West Image Perception Conf., Newport, RI, 1993.