Patent ID: 8005283

Claim:
A method for combining a representation of a 2D fluoroscopic image of a beating heart of a patient with a static 3D image data set of the beating heart, comprising: recording the static 3D image data set of the heart triggered by ECG at a first cardiac phase; acquiring the 2D fluoroscopic image of the beating heart; stimulatingly recording an ECG of the beating heart during the acquisition and assigning a cardiac phase to the 2D fluoroscopic image; calculating a 2D pseudo-projection of the 3D image data set on to an image plane of the fluoroscopic image; and representing the 2D fluoroscopic image on a screen overlaid with the 2D pseudo-projection, wherein the 2D pseudo-projection is represented differently on the screen depending on an interval of the cardiac phase of the 2D fluoroscopic image relative to the first cardiac phase; wherein a series of 2D fluoroscopic images of the beating heart are consecutively recorded at even time intervals and each 2D fluoroscopic image is assigned an associated cardiac phrase, wherein a plurality of 2D pseudo-projections of the 3D image data set are calculated for each 2D fluoroscopic image on to an image plane of each 2D fluoroscopic image, and wherein the 2D fluoroscopic images are consecutively represent on a screen and each 2D fluoroscopic image is overlaid with an associated 2D pseudo-projection corresponding to a currently represented 2D fluoroscopic image, and wherein the associated 2D pseudo-projection is represented differently on the screen depending on an interval of a cardiac phase of the currently represented 2D fluoroscopic image relative to the first cardiac phase or is not represented during other cardiac phases.