Patent Document ID: 7565190
Application ID: 10249812
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for planning atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation for a patient, the method comprising: obtaining cardiac acquisition data from a medical imaging system; generating from the acquisition data a cardiac 3D model including the left atrium, left circumflex artery, coronary arteries and pulmonary veins of the patient; identifying one or more left atrial (LA) and pulmonary vein (PV) anatomical landmarks on said 3D model and inserting geometric markers therein corresponding to selected ones of said anatomical landmarks; generating from the 3D model graphs or plots of muscle thickness in and around the PV ostium; performing vessel tracking segmentation of the coronary arteries; identifying areas of the left atrium and pulmonary veins within a determined proximity with respect to the left circumflex artery; creating a translucent 3D rendering of the LA and PVs along with and in contrast to an opaque rendering of the coronary arteries, and highlighting areas of the LA in proximity of the left circumflex artery (LCx); determining from the graphs or plots of muscle thickness and the LCx proximity data levels of ablation to be applied to a given area of one or more LA and PV surfaces to avoid excessive ablation in those areas of the LA in proximity to the LCx; wherein the 3D model, translucent rendering, opaque rendering, highlighting, muscle thickness graphs or plots, and LCx proximity data are useful to assist an electrophysiologist to decide how much radiofrequency ablation energy to use at different cardiac locations in a subsequent interventional procedure where the 3D model by using the geometric markers is registerable with a projection image on an interventional system to improve the efficiency of the subsequent interventional procedure and reduce the risk of complications.