Patent ID: 8565859

Claim:
A method for angiography and intra-vascular ultrasound (IVUS) co-registration comprising: detecting a vessel branch in an angiogram image; receiving a sequence of IVUS images from an IVUS transducer, the IVUS image acquired while the IVUS transducer is being pulled back through the vessel branch; receiving a fluoroscopic image sequence acquired while the IVUS transducer is being pulled back through the vessel branch; detecting the IVUS transducer and a guiding catheter tip in each of a plurality of frames of the fluoroscopic image sequence; mapping the IVUS transducer detected in each frame of the fluoroscopic image sequence to a respective location in the detected vessel branch of the angiogram image based on a calculated Euclidean distance and a determined geodesic distance between the IVUS transducer detected in each frame and the guiding catheter tip detected in each frame; and registering each of the IVUS images to a respective location in the detected vessel branch of the angiogram image based on the mapped location of the IVUS transducer detected in a corresponding frame of the fluoroscopic image sequence.