Angiogram analysis in APL: a case study

ABSTRACT

Angiograms are commonly used to diagnose the occurrence of an arterial occlusion. Dye is injected into a blood vessel, where its movement is tracked and recorded with x-rays. Currently, a physician uses these pictures to make a qualitative judgment on the state of the heart or artery. Unfortunately, these judgments are quite often incorrect. A joint project between the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Applied Physics Laboratory has been investigating the feasibility of digitally analyzing these angiograms, in order to better understand how blood flows through the heart and what type of occlusions are truly dangerous. APL became instrumental in this project because its powerful array manipulation functions allowed us to test our algorithms very quickly. In this overview, some of APL's features are discussed and compared to their equivalents in other software packages.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: APL

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Animation

  J. Computer Applications
  J.3 LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
      Subjects: Health

General Terms:
Languages, Theory