Patent ID: 8233688

Claim:
A method for detecting and compensating for respiratory motion, the method comprising: producing a 3D image of a patient's heart by means of a 3D imaging system; recording an electrocardiogram at the same time as the 3D image is acquired; performing a segmentation of the 3D image; exposing the patient's heart to radiation produced by a radiography imaging system; obtaining, through a detector, a succession of radiography images representing an internal structure of the heart; synchronizing the succession of acquired radiography images with the electrocardiogram; computing an initial registration between one of the radiography images and a re-projection of the 3D image; analyzing at least one part of the radiography images wherein the analysis is synchronized in order to highlight a respiratory motion therein, the analyzing step comprising: selecting a component of an identifiable object common to the synchronized radiography image obtained at an instant t and the synchronized radiography image obtained at an instant t+1; computing Cartesian coordinates of this component both in the synchronized radiography image obtained at the instant t and the synchronized radiography image obtained at the instant t+1; and comparing the computed coordinates, wherein the result of this comparison constitutes the respiratory motion and a sign of the result of the comparison provides information on the sense of the shift of the motion; determining an additional respiratory registration linked to the respiration; making a fusion of the re-projected 3D image with radiography images in compensating for the respiratory motion of the radiography images with the additional registration; and displaying the fusion image on a viewing screen.