4D MRI Flow Coupled to Physics-Based Fluid Simulation for Blood-Flow Visualization

• Published in: Computer graphics forum Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 121 - 130
• Main Authors: de Hoon, N., van Pelt, R., Jalba, A., Vilanova, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2014
• Subjects: Analysis; Cardiovascular disease; Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS); Computer graphics; Computer simulation; Data assimilation; Diseases; G.1.1 [Mathematics of Computing] Numerical Analysis-Interpolation; I.3.8 [Computer Graphics] Applications-4D PC-MRI Blood-Flow; I.6.8 [Simulation and Modeling] Types of Simulation-Combined; Imaging; Joining; Mathematical models; Medical imaging; Noise; Risk; Simulation; Studies; Visualization
• ISSN: 0167-7055; 1467-8659
• DOI: 10.1111/cgf.12368

Modern MRI measurements deliver volumetric and time‐varying blood‐flow data of unprecedented quality. Visual analysis of these data potentially leads to a better diagnosis and risk assessment of various cardiovascular diseases. Recent advances have improved the speed and quality of the imaging data considerably. Nevertheless, the data remains compromised by noise and a lack of spatiotemporal resolution. Besides imaging data, also numerical simulations are employed. These are based on mathematical models of specific features of physical reality. However, these models require realistic parameters and boundary conditions based on measurements. We propose to use data assimilation to bring measured data and physically‐based simulation together, and to harness the mutual benefits. The accuracy and noise robustness of the coupled approach is validated using an analytic flow field. Furthermore, we present a comparative visualization that conveys the differences between using conventional interpolation and our coupled approach.