Validation of a novel cardiac motion correction algorithm for x-ray computed tomography: From phantom experiments to initial clinical experience.

A novel cardiac motion correction algorithm has been introduced recently. Unlike other segmentation-based approaches it is fully automatic and capable of correcting motion artifacts of myocardial wall and other moving structures as well as coronary arteries of the heart. In addition, it requires raw data of only less than a single rotation for motion estimation and correction, which is a significant advantage from the perspective of x-ray exposure and workflow. The aim of this study is to explore the capability of the proposed method through phantoms and in-vivo experiments. Motion correction of coronary arteries and other heart structures including myocardial wall is the main focus of the evaluation. First, we provide a brief introduction to the concept of the motion correction algorithm. Next we address the procedure of our studies using an XCAT phantom and commercially available physical phantoms. Results of XCAT phantom demonstrate that our solution significantly improves the structural similarity of coronary arteries compared to FBP (proposed: 0.94, FBP: 0.77, p