Patent ID: 8554490

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of automatically generating a vascular model of a blood vessel, the method comprising: by a computer-based modeler executing on a processor and coupled to receive data from a data source, automatically interpolating a plurality of data points from the data source, the data points corresponding to a contour of a segmented image of the blood vessel, to yield an interpolated contour, the interpolation including circumferential interpolation and axial interpolation, the circumferential interpolation being performed in a two-dimensional slice representation of the blood vessel to correct for irregular shapes caused by image and segmentation distortion, the axial interpolation being performed along the blood vessel to generate another two-dimensional slice representation of the blood vessel to avoid sudden geometric changes due to angiography gaps; automatically generating a structural model, the structural model representing three-dimensional structural characteristics of the blood vessel, based on respective interpolated contours from the two-dimensional slice representations; automatically generating a fluid model, the fluid model representing three-dimensional characteristics of fluid flow within the vessel, based on respective interpolated contours from the two-dimensional slice representations; and automatically generating a vascular model based on the structural model and the fluid model, such that the processor outputs the vascular model.