The accurate 3-D reconstruction of the geometric configuration of vascular trees from X-ray recordings

The authors describe a method for the accurate reconstruction and display of the three dimensional (3-D) configuration of a vascular tree from two X-ray views. In order to achieve this, the precise location and orientation of the X-ray equipment must be known for both views. Each vessel segment of the vascular tree is identified and located in each view and the calibre of each vessel segment is calculated and, from the resulting 3-D data set, a 2-D image of the vascular tree, from any chosen viewpoint is reconstructed. The blood vessels are represented by cylinders joined by spheres and shaded to give the impression of depth, the third dimension. (Auth.)