Numerical reconstruction of pulsatile blood flow from 4D computer tomography angiography data

We present a novel numerical algorithm developed to reconstuct pulsatile blood flow from ECG-gated CT angiography data. A block-based optimization method was constructed to solve the inverse problem corresponding to the Riccati-type ordinary differential equation that can be deduced from conservation principles and Hooke's law. Local flow rate for 5 patients was computed in 10cm long aorta segments that are located 1cm below the heart. The wave form of the local flow rate curves seems to be realistic. Our approach is suitable for estimating characteristics of pulsatile blood flow in aorta based on ECG gated CT scan thereby contributing to more accurate description of several cardiovascular lesions.