Cardiac motion analysis from B-mode ultrasound sequence is a key task in assessing the health of the heart. The paper proposes a new methodology for cardiac motion analysis based on the temporal behaviour of points of interest on the myocardium. We define a new signal called the Temporal Flow Graph (TFG) which depicts the movement of a point of interest over time. It is a graphical representation derived from a flow field and describes the temporal evolution of a point. We prove that TFG for an object undergoing periodic motion is also periodic. This principle can be utilized to derive both global and local information from a given sequence. We demonstrate this for detecting motion irregularities at the sequence, as well as regional levels on real and synthetic data. A coarse localisation of anatomical landmarks such as centres of left/right cavities and valve points is also demonstrated using TFGs.
@article{arxiv.1604.06979,
title = {Cardiac Motion Analysis by Temporal Flow Graphs},
author = {V S R Veeravasarapu and Jayanthi Sivaswamy and Vishanji Karani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.06979},
year = {2016}
}