Single Branch versus Multiple Branch Automatic 3D Coronary Artery Reconstruction from X-Ray Coronary Angiography Images: A Comparative Study

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death in the modern world. This paper proposes and compares two methods based on X-ray angiography (XRA) 3D coronary artery reconstruction used to numerically compute virtual fractional flow reserve (FFR), instead of performing an invasive procedure. The first method is based solely on extracting single coronary artery branches, while the second is based on extracting key information on the entire coronary artery tree at the same time. Both methods use image processing techniques to extract information about the coronary artery such as width and centerline position, followed by 3D reconstruction using epipolar geometry and finite element method (FEM) simulation of virtual FFR. Single branch reconstruction showed better results for FFR calculation but requires significantly more diagnostic time, while multiple branch reconstruction is more user-friendly and better captures stenosis located at branching points. Presented at the ECCOMAS MSF 2025 Thematic Conference, 25-27 June 2025, Split, Croatia.