3D reconstruction of left ventricle for blood flow simulations

Echocardiography is currently used as a non-invasive evaluation to diagnose heart disease. When the 2D echo imaging technique (having high temporal resolution) is combined with CFD, a more rigorous investigation of the cardiac system could be carried out. The standard 2D echo projections are used to perform a 3D reconstruction of the left ventricle (LV) for a pig’s heart. For one complete cardiac cycle, 3 short-axis and 3 long-axis cross sections are identified from echo clips by utilizing pixels. The LV boundaries are smoothened, best fitted among themselves and interpolated in time and space. The fact that cardiac motion is a combination of both deformation and torsion, the lateral short-axis sections are provided with rotation about each layer’s geometric centre. From base to apex, linear interpolation is employed for identifying angular locations of the lateral sections. The developed final 3D reconstruction is intended to yield ventricular flow analysis results.