Simulating coronary arteries in x-ray angiograms

Clinical validation of quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) algorithms is difficult due to the lack of a simple alternative method for accurately measuring in vivo vessel dimensions. We address this problem by embedding simulated coronary artery segments with known geometry in clinical angiograms. Our vessel model accounts for the profile of the vessel, x-ray attenuation in the original background, and noise in the imaging system. We have compared diameter measurements of our computer simulated arteries with measurements of an x-ray Telescopic-Shaped Phantom (XTSP) with the same diameters. The results show that for both uniform and anthropomorphic backgrounds there is good agreement in the measured diameters of XTSP compared to the simulated arteries (Pearson's correlation coefficient 0.99). In addition, the difference in accuracy and precision of the true diameter measures compared to the XTSP and simulated artery diameters was small (mean absolute error across all diameters was < or = 0.11 mm +/- 0.09 mm).