Patent ID: 9591994
Date: 2017-03-14
CPC Classifications: A61B,G06T,G16H

Claim:
1. A method for diagnosing a risk of cardiac disease, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining an image showing a vasculature of at least part of a patient's biological tree; identifying a luminal cross-sectional area of a side branch vessel from the image; identifying a luminal cross-sectional area of a main artery most proximal to the side branch vessel from the image; determining a myocardial region at risk for infarct from side branch occlusion relative to a mass perfused by the most proximal artery, wherein such region is a percentage of the mass perfused by the most proximal artery and quantitatively calculated using the cross-sectional areas of the side branch and the most proximal main artery; diagnosing a risk of cardiac disease based on a diameter of the side branch vessel and a size of the myocardial region at risk for infarct perfused by the side branch, wherein a relationship between the size of the myocardial region at risk for infarct and the cross-sectional area of the side branch is substantially linear; and administering a treatment to the patient if a risk of cardiac disease at or above a predefined acceptable risk level is diagnosed.