Biomedical Image Technologies (BIT)

Research: Cardiovascular Imaging

The aim of this research line is to contribute to an early diagnosis of cardiovascular pathologies, by providing functional and quantitative information of the heart and vessels obtained from images (mainly echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography). Our group develops theory and methods applied mainly to: Myocardial functional analysis Myocardial ischemia can lead to movement abnormalities of myocardial regions that could be too subtle to be detected visually. We have developed analysis programs that can provide quantitative information on the myocardial movement, with the aim of identifying and characterizing abnormalities. B-spline non-rigid registration techniques have been optimized for cardiac motion detection on ultrasound, MRI and tagged-MRI sequences. Specially important has been the characterization of myocardial strain, as it is an indication of active contraction. Methodologies have been extended to three dimensions where motion can be completely characterized. The degree of irrigation of each myocardial region can be detected by images with contrast agents. Different techniques have been developed to analyze and compensate the motion of these sequences to provide quantitative information of perfusion. Both echocardiography and first pass gadolinium MR imaging data have been studied. Vascular imaging Great and small vessel function is important to assess the prognosis and treatment of cardiovascular patients. Different tools have been designed to efficiently segment great and small vessels determining patient staging. Improving image acquisition and analysis Cardiac Imaging implies important challenges in acquisition mainly due to simultaneous cardiac and respiratory motion. Allowing free-breathing acquisition has a clear impact in acquisition time and patient comfort. Motion compensation is achieved with non rigid registration techniques.  Image enhancement can also be achieved using registration and multiresolution techniques, allowing improved functional assessment. Contrast-enhanced MRI signal intensity of subendocardial tissue projected onto a 3D endocardial shell reconstruction of the left ventricle. These maps could help to identify conduction channels that are related to ventricular tachycardia

Non-rigid registration techniques optimized for cardiac motion estimation Myocardial perfusion studied using images with contrast agents. Motion compensation is required for regional analysis Vascular imaging: segmentation of the aorta from CT images

A key issue of this work has been the validation of the proposed software tools with a large number of experimental and clinical images, in close contact with medical personnel, leading to established collaborations:

Collaborations

• Hospital G.U. Gregorio Marañón (Spain).
• Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro (Spain).
• Department of Biomedical Engineering. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Baltimore (MD, USA).
• Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. National Institutes of Health. Bethesda (MD, USA).
• Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging. Brigham and Women's Hospital. Harvard Medical School. Boston (MA, USA).

Some publications

(more can be found on the Publications page)

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• Ortuño, J.E., Vegas-Sánchez-Ferrero, G., Gómez-Valverde, J.J., Chen, M.Y., Santos, A., McVeigh, E.R., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J. "Automatic estimation of aortic and mitral valve displacements in dynamic CTA with 4D graph-cuts". Med. Image Anal., 65:101748. 2020.
• Jimenez-Carretero, D., Bermejo-Peláez, D., Nardelli, P., Fraga, P., Fraile, E., San José Estépar, R., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J. "A Graph-Cut Approach for Pulmonary Artery-Vein Segmentation in Noncontrast CT Images". Med. Image Anal., 52:144-159. 2019.
• Vegas-Sánchez-Ferrero, G., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Washko, G.R., San José Estépar, R. "Statistical Characterization of Noise for Spatial Standardization of CT Scans: Enabling Comparison with Multiple Kernels and Doses". Med. Image Anal. 40:44-59. 2017.
• Jimenez-Carretero, D., San Jose Estepar, R., Diaz Cacio, M., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J. "Automatic Synthesis of Anthropomorphic Pulmonary CT Phantoms". PLoS One, 11(1):e0146060. 2016.
• González, G., Jiménez-Carretero, D., Rodríguez-López, S., Kumamaru, K.K., George, E., San José Estépar, R., Rybicki, F.J., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J. "Automated Axial Right Ventricle to Left Ventricle Diameter Ratio Computation in Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography". PLoS One, 10(5):e0127797. 2015.
• Wollny, G., Kellman, P., Santos, A., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J. "Automatic motion compensation of free breathing acquired myocardial perfusion data by using independent component analysis". Med. Image Anal., 16(5):1015-1028. 2012.
• Arenal, A., Hernández, J., Pérez-David, E., Rubio-Guivernau, J.L., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Fernández-Avilés, F. "Do the spatial characteristics of myocardial scar tissue determine the risk of ventricular arrhythmias?". Cardiovasc. Res., 94(2):324-332. 2012.
• Perez-David, E., Arenal, A., Rubio-Guivernau, J.L., del Castillo, R., Atea, L., Arbelo, E., Caballero, E., Celorrio, V., Datino, T., Gonzalez-Torrecilla, E., Atienza, F., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Bermejo, J., Medina, A., Fernandez-Aviles, F. "Noninvasive Identification of Ventricular Tachycardia-Related Conducting Channels Using Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Patients With Chronic Myocardial Infarction". J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., 57(2):184-194. 2011 (Editorial comment on this article).
• Wollny, G., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Kellman, P., Santos, A. "Exploiting Quasi-Periodicity in Motion Correction of Free-Breathing Myocardial Perfusion MRI". IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, 29(8):1516-1527. 2010
• Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Derbyshire, J.A., Sampath, S., Santos, A., Desco, M., McVeigh, E.R. "Unsupervised estimation of myocardial displacement from tagged MR sequences using non-rigid registration". Magn. Reson. Med., 59(1):181-189. 2008.
• Mahía, P., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Verdugo, V., Pérez-David, E., Santos, A., Moreno, M., Desco, M., García-Fernández, M.A. "Radial versus Longitudinal Myocardial Deformation from Gray-Scale Echocardiography". Ultrasound Med. Biol., 33(11):1699-1705. 2007.
• Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Kellman, P., Arai, A.E., McVeigh, E.R. "Motion corrected free-breathing delayed enhancement imaging of myocardial infarction using non-rigid registration". J. Magn. Reson. Imaging, 26:184-190. 2007.
• Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Mahia-Casado, P., Santos, A., Perez-David, E., Garcia-Fernandez, M.A, Desco, M. "Cardiac Motion Analysis from Ultrasound Sequences using Nonrigid Registration Validation against Doppler Tissue Velocity". Ultrasound Med. Biol., 32(4):483-490. 2006.
• Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Kybic, J., Desco, M., Santos, A., Suhling, M., Hunziker, P., Unser, M. "Spatio-Temporal Nonrigid Registration for Ultrasound Cardiac Motion Estimation". IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, 24(9):1113-1126. 2005.
• Malpica, N., Santos, A., Zuluaga, M.A., Ledesma, M.J., Pérez, E., García-Fernández, M.A., Desco, M. "Tracking of regions-of-interest in myocardial contrast echocardiography". Ultrasound Med. Biol., 30(3):303-309. 2004.
• Desco, M., Ledesma-Carbayo, M.J., Pérez, E., Santos, A., Antoranz, J.C., Malpica, N., Marcos-Alberca, P., García-Fernández, M.A. "Assessment of Normal and Ischaemic Myocardium by Quantitative M-mode Tissue Doppler Imaging". Ultrasound Med. Biol., 28(5): 561-569. 2002.