Patent ID: 7955279
Filing Date: 2011-06-07
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A system for evaluating an equilibrium position of the human body, including a source of X-rays, means for supporting a target plate sensitive to X-rays to produce on the target plate a radiographic image of a patient, and patient support means for supporting the patient in a fixed position between the source of X-rays and the support means for the target plate and for generating position signals imaging the horizontal position of the global axis of gravity of the patient relative to the source of X-rays and the target plate, the system including: a) scanning means which digitize the radiographic image of the patient produced on the target plate, and which thereby generate a digitized radiographic image, b) means for generating, as a function of said position signals, a digitized image of the cast shadow of the global axis of gravity in the plane of the target plate, c) means for combining with said digitized radiographic image of the patient the digitized image of the cast shadow of the global axis of gravity for generating a combined digitized image, and d) means for viewing said combined digitized image wherein the means for generating a digitized image of the cast shadow of the global axis of gravity include: e) a calculation unit and an associated memory in which geometrical data are stored corresponding to the relative positions of the source of X-rays, the plane of the target plate, and the patient support means in a fixed system of axes, and f) a program stored in a program memory area of the memory, the program adapted for instructing the calculation unit to store said position signals at the time of taking the radiographic image, to calculate, as a function of said position signals, the straight line segment intersecting the plane of the target plate and the vertical plane passing through the source of X-rays and the horizontal position of the global axis of gravity, and to store the result of this calculation, which constitutes the image of the global axis of gravity.