WaVelocity: cardiovascular structure and flow analysis software



Cardiovascular diseases are still the number one cause of death in the Western world. In Belgium alone around 30.000 patients die annually from cardiovascular disease, which accounts for 1/3 of all deaths. On a local scale, at Ghent University Hospital alone in the first 8 months of 2013, already 230 CMR examinations (arterial tortuosity, Loeys-Dietz, Marfan, Turner, Bicuspid Aortic Valve, aortic aneurysm, etc.) have been conducted mostly targeting thoracic and abdominal aorta.

The conventional indexes of cardiac performance usually do not reveal significant changes until there is overt dysfunction [Sengupta12], which makes these indexes less effective for the early diagnosis and treatment of cardiac disease. However, blood flow is immediately affected by changes in cardiac function. Analysis of the blood flow is associated with pressure differences, shear stresses and energy dissipation.

The current measurements still highly qualitative and rely on the visualization of flow and its parameters, where each parameter calls for different types of analysis and representation. Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop consistent flow measurements for clinical applications. The aim of this project is to develop an image processing software tool for quantification of blood flow.