Patent ID: 6366799
Filing Date: 2002-04-02
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A system for determining the disposition of a probe within the body of a patient, comprising:(a) a probe having one ore more probe field transducers mounted therein; (b) one or more reference field transducers mounted on a frame; (c) means for mounting said frame for movement relative to the patient so that said reference field transducers can be selectively positioned in different positions in close proximity to the body of the patient; (d) transmission means to transmit one or more non-ionizing fields between said probe field transducers and said reference field transducers; (e) detection means to detect each such transmitted field; (f) calculation means to determine the relative disposition of said probe with respect to said reference field transducers from properties of the detected fields and from the relative dispositions of said reference field transducers with respect to one another; and (g) translation means to translate the disposition of said probe relative to said reference field transducers to a known disposition relative to the body of the patient, said translation means including one or more fiducial transducers attachable to the body of the patient, said disposition of said one or more reference field transducers being determined by transmitting and receiving non-ionizing fields between the one or more fiducial transducers and the one or more reference field transducers.