Measurement of left ventricular wall motion from contour shape deformation.

This paper has presented the formulation and initial results for a new algorithm aimed at estimating and quantifying the trajectories of points on the left ventricular wall of the heart based on two- dimensional image-derived shape information. The algorithm is based on first automatically estimating the LV contour for two frames and then sampling the contours and tracking the motion of each sample point. Work is currently in progress to evaluate and compare each of three shape-based matching criteria, and to extend the algorithm to multiple frames. Future work will extend the approach to three spatial dimensions, capitalizing on the idea that all of the basic concepts, including curvature measurement, can be readily adapted for the higher dimensional problem.