Vessel Maps: A Survey of Map-Like Visualizations of the Cardiovascular System

Abstract

Map-like visualizations of patient-specific cardiovascular structures have been applied in numerous medical application contexts. The term map-like alludes to the characteristics these depictions share with cartographic maps: they show the spatial relations of data attributes from a single perspective, they abstract the underlying data to increase legibility, and they facilitate tasks centered around overview, navigation, and comparison. A vast landscape of techniques exists to derive such maps from heterogeneous data spaces. Yet, they all target similar purposes within disease diagnostics, treatment, or research and they face coinciding challenges in mapping the spatial component of a treelike structure to a legible layout. In this report, we present a framing to unify these approaches. On the one hand, we provide a classification of the existing literature according to the data spaces such maps can be derived from. On the other hand, we view the approaches in light of the manifold requirements medical practitioners and researchers have in their efforts to combat the ever-growing burden of cardiovascular disease. Based on these two perspectives, we offer recommendations for the design of map-like visualizations of the cardiovascular system.