Patent ID: 6317621
Filing Date: 2001-11-13
Classification: A61B,A61M

Abstract:
A method for navigating a catheter in a subject, comprising the steps of:prior to conducting a medical intervention on a subject, attaching a plurality of markers to said subject and conducting a pre-operative 3D angiographic scan of said subject thereby obtaining a plurality of 2D projection images in which said markers are visible at respective marker positions;from said plurality of 2D projection images, reconstructing a 3D image of a vascular tree in said subject using a plurality of projection matrices; andin said medical intervention, inserting a catheter in said subject and non-radiologically detecting a position of said catheter relative to a patient coordinate system and displaying an image of said vascular tree and said catheter in said patient coordinate system, by identifying said marker positions, as identified marker positions, in at least two of said 2D projection images and back-projecting said identified marker positions by applying respective ones of said projection matrices to said at least two of said 2D projection images to obtain back-projected coordinates of said identified marker positions in said patient coordinate system, and displaying said markers at said back-projected coordinates in said patient coordinate system in said image of said vascular tree and said catheter.