Construction of 3-D angiography data using the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART)

Three-dimensional angiographic reconstrcution has emerged as an alternative to the traditional depiction of aneurysm angioarchitecture provided by 2-D perspective project-ions acquired by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and fluoroscopy. One clinical application of research involving 3-D angiographic reconstruction is intraoperative localization and visualization during aneurysm embolization procedures. For this procedure, reconstruction quality is important for the 3-D reconstruction of anatomy as well as for the reconstrucution of intraaneurysm coils imaged endovascularly and subsequently renderded within an existing 3-D anatomic representation. Rotational angiography involves the acquisition of a series of 2-D, cone-beam projections of intracranial anatomy by a rotating x-ray gantry following a single injection of contrast media. Our investigation focuses on the practicality of using methods that employ algebraic reconstruction techniques (ART) to reconstruct 3-D data from 2-D cone-beam projections acquired using rotational angiography during embolization procedures. Important to our investigation axe issues that arise within the implementation of the projection, correction and backprojection steps of the reconstruction algorithm that affect reconstruction quality. Several methods are discussed to perform accurate voxel grid projection and backprojection. Various parameters of the reconstruction algorithm implementation are also investigated., Preliminary results indicating that quality 3-D reconstructions from 2-D projections of synthetic volumes are presented. Further modifications to our implementation hold the promise of achieving accurate reconstruction results with a lower computation cost than the algorithm implemention used for this study. We have concluded that methods to extend the traditional ART algorithm for cone-beam projection acquisition produce quality 3-D reconstructions.