Enhanced visualization of cerebral blood vessels for X-ray angiograms

Abstract

Neurologists frequently use X-ray angiographic techniques in order to establish the optimal treatment or intervention procedure. Neurosurgeries performed at blood vessels level are difficult procedures because of the low accessibility in the human brain. Therefore, the establishment of a correct diagnosis based on angiographies is of paramount importance. Enhanced visualization of blood vessels by separating veins and arteries from background can help, in many cases, in giving a more accurate diagnosis. In this article, three methods for arteries and veins classification and enhanced visualization are presented. From our study, it results that, using coefficients of wavelet transform as parameters for the classification, a better visual representation of small vessels is achieved.