Generation of Patient-Specific Cardiac Vascular Networks: A Hybrid Image-Based and Synthetic Geometric Model

Objective: In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the generation of a patient-specific cardiac vascular network starting from segmented epicardial vessels down to the arterioles. Method: We extend a tree generation method based on satisfaction of functional principles, named constrained constructive optimization, to account for multiple, competing vascular trees. The algorithm simulates angiogenesis under vascular volume minimization with...