User-defined ROI tracking for estimation of the myocardial blush grade

For a proper diagnosis and post treatment evaluation of acute myocardial infarction, angiographic measures of the myocardial perfusion such as the myocardial blush grade are pivotal. The presence of blood with contrast agent in heart tissue can be observed as a darkening of the target region. Currently, the myocardial blush grade is established by a visual analysis of this darkening. We present methods which allow the automatization this important procedure thereby improving from a what in clinical routine is termed a "semi-quantitative" analysis to a "quantitative" analysis with less inter- and intra- observer variability