Vascular characteristic determination with correspondence modeling of a vascular tree

A vascular assessment apparatus comprising:

• a processor communicatively coupled to a medical imaging device;
• and
• a memory storing non-transitory computer-readable instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to:
• receive a plurality of 2-D images each comprising vascular features of vascular segments;
• identify vascular features of the vascular segments within the plurality of 2-D images, each vascular feature including at least one of a vessel segment, a vessel centerline, a furcation, a stenotic region, or a vascular wall boundary,
• determine a correspondence of the same vascular feature among at least some of the plurality of 2-D images, the determination being made for the identified vascular features,
• create a graph of vascular width as a function of position along a length of the respective vascular segment using the correspondence of the same vascular feature among at least some of the plurality of 2-D images,
• determine a vascular characteristic for each of the vascular features using the graph of vascular width for the respective vascular segment, and
• calculate fractional flow reserve values for the vascular segments using the determined vascular characteristics.