CALL FOR PAPERS

MICCAI 2010 Workshop on Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart: Mapping Structure and Function + a Cardiac Electrophysiological Simulation Challenge!

Beijing, China (in conjonction with MICCAI'10)

WEBSITE: http://cilab2.upf.edu/stacom_cesc10/

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

* Leon Axel, New York University, USA
* Alejandro Frangi, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
* Razvan Ionasec, Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, USA
* Hervé Delingette, INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, France
* Dimitris Metaxas, Rutgers, New York, USA
* Daniel Rueckert, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
* Cristian Lorenz, Philips, Hamburg, Germany

TOPIC

There has been considerable progress over the last years in the
construction and application of cardiac atlases and computational
models which integrate heart shape, function and physiology, as
illustrated for instance by the "Physiome project" and the “Virtual
Physiological Human” European initiatives. Integrative models of
cardiac function are important for understanding disease, evaluating
treatment, and planning intervention. Noninvasive cardiovascular
imaging plays an important role in defining the computational domain,
the boundary/initial conditions, and tissue function and
properties. Hence, one of the currently most important challenges in
the field is the development of robust and effective parameterization
and personalization of these computational models with only
minimally-invasive clinical imaging. However, in order to evaluate the
model output and achieve clinical impact, such personalised models
have to be compared with generic knowledge on the healthy and
pathological heart. This knowledge can be acquired through the
building of statistical models of the heart. Several efforts are now
established to provide web-accessible structural and functional
atlases of the normal and pathological heart for clinical, research
and educational purposes. Ontological schemata are then required to
describe input and output in machine readable form. We believe all
these approaches will only be effectively developed through
collaboration across the full research scope of the imaging and
modelling communities.

This workshop will provide a forum for the discussion of the latest
developments in the areas of heart mapping, including atlas
construction, statistical modeling of cardiac function across patient
groups, cardiac computational physiology, model personalization,
ontological schemata for data and results, atlas based functional
analysis, integrated functional/structural analyses but also experts
in cardiology, radiology, biology and physiology. Through this
workshop we would also particularly like to engage a new generation of
early career researchers in working at this interface.

SIMULATION CHALLENGE

A simulation challenge will be included in this workshop. The goal of
this challenge is to compare strategies for the personalisation of
different cardiac computational models with experimental data. A
complete dataset will be provided in advance, so that all submissions
can use it. This dataset will contain the cardiac geometry and fibre
orientations from MRI as well as epicardial transmembrane potential
from optical mapping. Participants will submit personalised models and
resulting isochrones, in order to allow a discussion on the different
personalisation strategies and results. Predictions of the
personalised models will be also tested with additional data, made
available between the submission time and the workshop time.

SCOPE

1. Efficient and robust statistical representations of cardiac morphology and morphodynamics
2. Atlas-based quantitative analysis of cardiac images
3. Atlas construction methods.
4. Sharing and reuse of computational cardiac anatomical, mechanical and electrophysiological models
5. Strategies for the personalization of cardiac computational models
6. Parameter sensitivity quantification and identification of relevant parameters in complex computational models
7. Integration of multimodal data in a common reference space
8. Clinical translation of imaging and modeling techniques
9. Statistical analysis of regional heart shape and wall motion characteristics across population groups.
10. Ontological schema to facilitate computational grid infrastructure.
11. Atlas-based physiological analysis of subject-specific characteristics.

KEY DATES

8  June - Deadline for workshop paper submission.
13 July - Paper acceptance notification.
24 July - Draft program to MICCAI2010 organizers.
15 Aug  - Final program to MICCAI2010.
20 Sept – All day workshop in Beijing.

JOURNAL SPECIAL EDITION

A review journal paper with all the simulation challenge participants
is planned in order to present the different personalization
strategies. We also discussed with the editor in chief of Medical
Image Analysis a special issue of this journal on the topic of the
workshop, where the authors of the best papers will be invited to
submit full peer-reviewed articles and his response was extremely
positive.

ORGANIZERS

* Dr. Oscar Cámara. Center for Computational Imaging & Simulation Technologies in Biomedicine (CISTIB), Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
* Mihaela Pop, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Canada
* Dr. Kawal Rhode, Division of Imaging Sciences, St Thomas' Hospital, King’s College London, United Kingdom
* Dr. Maxime Sermesant, Asclepios team, INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France
* Pr. Nicolas Smith, Computing Laboratory, St John's College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
* Dr. Alistair Young, Department of Anatomy with Radiology, Auckland MRI Research Group, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand