A Statistical Approach for Detecting Tubular Structures in Myocardial Infarct Scars.

The presence of an infarct scar in the heart generates abnormal electrical pathways that may trigger the occurrence of arrhythmic episodes. While precise models of the electric propagation in the heart have been proposed, we are just starting to observe and analyze infarct scars using high-resolution imaging techniques. Recent observations have shown that the scar is a highly heterogeneous tissue, characterized by a complex interface with surrounding myocardium. For instance, the infarct scar is perforated by tunnels of live tissue, which could generate abnormal activation pathways and therefore facilitate arrhythmia episodes. In order to characterize the role of such structures, we need to first delineate them. In this paper, we propose an automatic method for the detection of these tunnels of normal tissue through scars in high resolution MR images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]