Patent ID: 8401620

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a support base configured to be movable to a desired position on a floor adjacent a movable cradle of an imaging system and lockable at the desired position relative to the imaging system; a guide manipulator supported on the support base, the guide manipulator configured to position a needle guide at a target location with respect to a patient disposed on the movable cradle, the target location being outside an imaging space of the imaging system such that a needle can be inserted through the needle guide at the target location, through an insertion point on the patient, and into a target point within the patient; and processing circuitry configured to: receive images of the patient from the imaging system; determine, based at least in part on the received images, a location of the insertion point relative to a gantry of the imaging system when the patient is disposed on the movable cradle and the movable cradle is disposed outside of the imaging space of the imaging system such that the insertion point is outside of the imaging space; determine a directional vector between the insertion point and the target point; determine the target location of the needle guide to be in line with the directional vector based at least in part on the determined location of the insertion point and the directional vector; and cause the guide manipulator to be moved to position the needle guide at the target location.