Modelling fibre orientation of the left ventricular human heart wall

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to obtain and represent the orientation of the muscle fibres in the left ventricular wall of the human heart. The orientation of these fibres vary continuously through the wall. This report features an introduction to the human heart and medical imaging techniques. Attention is gradually drawn to concepts in computer science, and how they can help us get a “clearer picture” of the internals of, perhaps, the most important organ in the human body. A highly detailed Magnetic Resonance Imaging data set of the left ventricle cavity is used as a base for the analysis with 3-D morphological transformations. Also, a 3-D extension of the Hough transformation is developed. This does not seem to have been done before. An attempt is made to obtain the general trend of the trabeculae carneae, as it is believed that this is the orientation of the inner-most muscle fibres of the heart wall. Suggestions for further work include refinement of the proposed 3-D Hough transformation to yield lines that can be used as guides for parametric curves. Also a brief introduction to Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging is given.