Patent ID: 8597211

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining an indicator body part subject to vital movement that is not to be irradiated and that serves as an indicator of the change in position of a body part subject to vital movement that is to be irradiated, and/or for determining an indicator trajectory that describes the vital movement of the indicator body part, comprising: a) providing pre-analysis data, that describes with temporal resolution in a three-dimensional space positions of the body part subject to vital movement that is to be irradiated and are changed by a vital movement, and positions of at least one candidate body part that is not to be irradiated, said pre-analysis data obtained prior to irradiation; b) determining, using a computer, a pre-target trajectory that describes a vital movement performed by the body part subject to vital movement that is to be irradiated, wherein determining the pre-target trajectory is based on the pre-analysis data; c) simulating data referred to as inter-analysis data, the inter-analysis data being image data to be generated during irradiation by a medical analytical imaging method, the simulation being based on the pre-analysis data, wherein the inter-analysis data describes changing positions of at least some of a plurality of the body parts that are not to be irradiated, the inter-analysis data describing the changing positions at least at certain times during irradiation at different points in time, the simulated inter-analysis data being used by at least one of the two steps d) and e); d) determining, using a computer, at least one candidate trajectory that describes the positions of at least one of the at least one candidate body part that is not to be irradiated, wherein determining the at least one candidate trajectory is based on the pre-analysis data; and e) determining, based on the at least one candidate trajectory and the pre-target trajectory, at least one of the at least one candidate body part as an indicator body part and/or one of the at least one candidate trajectory as a pre-indicator trajectory, or determining, based on the at least one candidate trajectory and the pre-target trajectory, the fact that none of the candidate body parts may be determined as an indicator body part and/or none of the candidate trajectories may be determined as a pre-indicator trajectory.