Patient specific optimal catheter selection for right coronary artery

During coronary artery angiography, a catheter is used to inject a contrast dye into the coronary arteries. Due to the anatomical variation of the aorta and the coronary arteries in different humans, one common catheter cannot be used for all patients. The cardiologists test different catheters for a patient and select the best catheter according to the patient’s anatomy. This procedure is time consuming and there is a slight chance of cancer from excessive exposure to radiation. To overcome these problems, we propose a computer aided catheter selection procedure. In this paper we present our approach for the angiography of the Right Coronary Artery (RCA). Our approach involves segmentation of the aorta and coronary arteries, finding the centerline and computing the Curve Angle (CA) and Curve Length (CL) between the aorta and the coronary arteries. We then compute CA and CL of catheters and suggest a catheter with the closest CA and CL with respect to the aorta’s and coronary arteries’ CA and CL. This solution avoids testing of many catheters during catheterization. The cardiologist already gets the recommendation about the optimal catheter for the patient prior to the intervention.