Unmet Need
· Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is an imaging technique that utilizes a contrast agent and subtraction of radiopaque structures (like bone) to visualize blood vessels for the assessment of cardiovascular disease (Stanford). However, due to involuntary motion of soft tissue, this subtractive measure is often misregistered, leading to inaccurate images of the vasculature. Current methods to overcome these motion artifacts (like energy subtraction) utilize material decomposition to allow for accurate registration, but with a significant drop in resolution (Aubert et al.). Therefore, there is a need for an approach to overcome motion artifacts with minimal degradation of image quality to accurately assess vascular health and disease states.
Value Proposition
- Minimizes motion artifacts and misregistration using time- and material-dependent information
- Higher quality resultant image than energy subtraction
- Applicable to other detector types and pre-contrast agents
Technology Description
· Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a method to increase the accuracy and resolution of digital subtraction angiography for interventional radiology. Utilizing several processing techniques and a dual-layer flat panel detector, the method is capable of differentiating soft tissue from bone and vascular contrast agents across time to accurately allow for high resolution visualization of blood vessels, even in the presence of involuntary soft tissue movement.
Stage of Development
- Advanced algorithm development is underway to improve performance.
Data Availability
Data is available within the publication below or at this link.
Publication
Grace J. Gang, J. Webster Stayman, "Three-material decomposition using a dual-layer flat panel detector in the presence of soft tissue motion," Proc. SPIE 12463, Medical Imaging 2023: Physics of Medical Imaging, 124630Y (7 April 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2654443
