Patent ID: 8007437

Claim:
A method of performing 4-dimensional (4D) virtual endoscopy, comprising: acquiring a sequence of cardiac images of a patient's heart from an imaging device; acquiring an electrocardiographic signal exhibiting cardiac cycles of said heart; utilizing said electrocardiographic signal to gate said images for deriving respective 3-dimensional (3D) views in succession at corresponding cardiac cycles, from respective cardiac images at a selected phase point common to each of said corresponding cardiac cycles so as to provide a 3 dimensional visualization of said patient's heart as a function of time for said 4D virtual endoscopy; utilizing a virtual camera; and virtually attaching said virtual camera to a point selected on a wall or surface in said sequence of cardiac images of said patient's heart, such that said virtual camera moves together with said point and will appear static in said respective 3D views in succession so as to provide said 3-dimensional visualization of said patient's heart as a function of time for said 4D virtual endoscopy, so as to produce a substantially steady image of said heart.