Patent ID: 7764984

Claim:
An apparatus for navigating an instrument through an anatomical structure of a patient's body volume, the apparatus comprising: a table for supporting the patient; at least a first C-arm having a first X-ray source and a first X-ray detector configured to acquire a first series of 2D-images of the instrument while manoeuvering through said anatomical structure; and a processing unit connected to a memory device, the memory device configured to hold pre-determined 3D-images of the patient's anatomical structure and hold a pre-determined 3D-model representation of the instrument; and wherein the processing unit is configured to: perform a 2D-3D registration to relate coordinates of the 2D-images of the instrument to coordinates of the 3D-images of the anatomical structure perform a 2D-3D registration to relate coordinates of the 3D-model representation of the instrument with the coordinates of the 2D-images of the instrument, calculate projections of the 3D-model representation to generate 2D-model images of the instrument corresponding to the acquired 2D-images of the instrument, modify the 3D-model representation in order to optimize matching of the 2D-model images to the acquired 2D-images of the instrument to derive an adapted 3D-model representation of the instrument, and merge the adapted 3D-model representation of the instrument with the 3D-images of the anatomical structure to provide merged 3D-images of the instrument manoeuvering through said anatomical structure.