IMAGINEHEART

Cardiovascular diseases cause more than 40% of all deaths in the European Union. Imaging methods for medical purposes are indispensable for determining a person’s cardiovascular health, and the most common methods are computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The interpretation of medical images collected in this way is extremely dependent on computer processing methods. The necessary software support is often very expensive and tied to the manufacturer of the individual device, making access to such software difficult for smaller hospitals and researchers.

The main goal of this project is to develop new methods for cardiovascular image analysis that will determine as many cardiovascular quantifications of the heart as possible from as few images as possible to achieve multiple analyses of cardiovascular health. Such an analysis will be achieved by establishing cause-and-effect relationships between certain quantifications and their proven impact on cardiovascular health. Examples of quantifications that can be used are: geometry and volume of the heart, geometry of vital arteries, the morphology of the auricles of the left atrium, blood flow through the aorta, analysis of cardiac compliance and quantization of epicardial fat. Deviation from the normal values ​​of almost every one of these quantifications is a risk factor in the development of some of heart diseases. Recognizing such deviations in time will enable recognition of potential risks to the patient’s health, which represents a fundamental improvement in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.