I point my heart with the tip of my fingers–Biometry for the diagnosis of congenital heart defects

Congenital heart defects are characterized by abnormal positioning of some anatomical structures relative to a normal heart. Classically the classification of the disease or the stage of the disease is based on the measurement of the relative position of these structures by the cardiac morphologist. We propose a method in which the heart volume is acquired by a CT scanner. In this paper we present a tool which allows us to define landmarks interactively in this heart volume. These landmarks are then used to estimate some simple geometrical models of the anatomical structures and so as to describe their relative position and orientation.