A fully automatic cardiac model with integrated scar tissue information for improved assessment of viability

Background Treatment of coronary artery disease can only be effective if myocardial tissue can be identified, that is still viable. To localize scar tissue in relation to the coronary vessels would therefore be desirable for interventional guidance. The aim of this study was to evaluate 1) whether integration of scar tissue into a patient specific heart model derived from Magnetic Resonance (MR) images is feasible and 2) whether this patient specific heart model allows for accurate assessment of the amount of myocardial scar compared to conventional manual infarct sizing.