Life Imaging Systems, Inc.

Other

The University of Western Ontario

Robarts Research Institute

University Hospital (london) Development Corporation

Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization

Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization (cimtec)

London Health Association

Biomedical Photometrics Inc.

The John P. Robarts Research Institute

London Health Sciences Research Inc.

The John P. Roberts Research Institute

London Health Assoc.

London Health Sciences Centre

Focal Healthcare Inc.

Aaron Fenster

Donal B Downey

Jeffrey Bax

Shane Dunne

David A Steinman

Christopher Waring

Hanif M Ladak

Janpeter T Larsen

Maria Drangova

David W Holdsworth

Dandan Shan

Kevin Barker

Kenneth Dunne

Lori Anne Gardi

Daniel W Rickey

John Miller

Paul A Picot

Michael Lavdas

Mohammad Ali Tavallaei

Thomas K Chan

Manale Saikaly

Eliezer Azi Ben-Lavi

Hanif Ladak

Chandima Edirisinghe

Mingyue Ding

Yunqiu Wang

Hamid Neshat

Maria Dranova

Shi Sherebrin

Shidong Tong

Nirmal Kakani

Abir Zahalka

Richard Derman

Jeremy D Gill

Derek Cool

Donal Downey

Lori Gardi

An actuator for moving an ultrasound transducer has a main body configured to be positioned adjacent to a target region of interest to be examined; and, a motor mounted on the main body. The motor is configured to have an ultrasound transducer connected thereto to simultaneously translate and rotate the ultrasound transducer to perform a compound scan of the target region of interest when the ultrasound transducer is connected to the motor. An ultrasound device has an ultrasound transducer movably mounted on the actuator. The actuator requires only single motor to effect both translation and rotation of the transducer thereby simplifying operation and providing a more compact device.

Actuator for ultrasound transducer

An apparatus is provided for assisting breast biopsy. The apparatus includes a biopsy guide, a support system that effects three-dimensional movement of the biopsy guide and a system for registering coordinates of a remote center of motion (RCM) of the biopsy guide with a coordinate system on an image of a breast obtained from a parallel plate radiology imager. The biopsy guide has a mounting plate and a needle gun mount and ultrasound transducer mount on the mounting plate in a common plane. A biopsy needle of a needle gun mounted on the needle gun mount and an image plane of an ultrasound transducer mounted on the ultrasound transducer mount have longitudinal axes in or parallel to the common plane, which intersect at the RCM. The position of the RCM with respect to the biopsy guide is unchanged when the needle gun and/or ultrasound transducer moves on the biopsy guide.

Biopsy apparatus

Disclosed is a counterbalance apparatus, and a method for counterbalancing using an apparatus, having a center of motion that is internal or external to the apparatus. The apparatus and method are adapted to support a payload, having a load vector applied in a direction of the vector or gravity, that is positioned distal to the center of motion. The apparatus includes a gimbal adapted to support the payload and allow for its rotational movement about the center of motion generating a load torque therefrom, and a resilient member adapted to engage the gimbal and supply a support torque to counterbalance the load torque. The method includes a step of supporting the payload with a gimbal adapted to allow rotational movement of the payload about the center of motion to generate a load torque therefrom, and a step of configuring a resilient member to engage the gimbal and supply a support torque to counterbalance the load torque.

Counterbalancing apparatus for gimbal joints and/or a method for counterbalancing a load on a gimbal joint

The present invention relates to a resilient member aided counterbalancing and stabilizing device and method for resilient member aided counterbalancing and stabilizing loads in the direction of gravity. The device preferably includes a quick release mechanism in each design and a counterbalance assembly which in preferred embodiments is used to aid in the precise positioning of a stabilizer which in turn supports a load (e.g., a medical device). The quick release assembly in each stabilizer design preferably includes a central housing containing at least one ball joint(s) which is preferably connected to the counterbalancing linkage that supports the load. To unlock the mechanism, the user preferably squeezes a trigger mechanism which directly loosens the locks responsible for holding the load in place.

Counterbalancing mechanism and stabilizer design and method for counterbalancing and stabilizing a load

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for catheter manipulation. In particular, systems as described herein can be used to drive a catheter while maintaining control along three degrees of freedom. Systems as described herein can be used in a wide variety of settings, including MRI in which small, non-magnetic robot systems having motors that remain stationary during use are advantageous.

System for catheter manipulation

A computer-implemented method for combining two 3-dimensional ultrasound images of a patient's body part containing blood vessels into a single 3-dimensional ultrasound image of that body part with a greater field of view. Blood vessels within the body part are used for registration. The two ultrasound images are preprocessed using a vessel enhancement algorithm to derive two corresponding enhanced images. The enhanced images can undergo a registration process based upon minimizing a mean-square-difference metric to derive an enhanced rigid transform, which represents a transform that maps the first enhanced image onto the second enhanced image. The two enhanced images are seamlessly combined via a blending process (via the use of a distance transform based weighting of the voxel values) to derive an output image.

3D ultrasound image stitching

Disclosed is a counterbalance system for moving a payload and a method for counterbalancing the payload. The system and method comprise a resilient member that is in communication with the payload to be moved and two resilient members that are in communication with either end of the first resilient member. An actuator is in communication with the first and third resilient members and a payload arm, attached to the payload, is in communication with the first and second resilient members. The resilient members may be compressed and relaxed during movement of the actuator and the payload arm so that energy may be transferred between the system and the payload to counterbalance the weight of the payload.

Counterbalance system and/or a method for counterbalancing a load

A counterbalance apparatus for supporting a load includes a base, a load bearing arm, a toggle linkage, and first and second resilient members for applying a force to the load bearing arm. The load bearing arm has pivot points forming a parallelogram linkage, and is adapted to support the load at a distal end. The toggle linkage can include an adjustment member positioned to define a distance relative to the attachment point. The first resilient member is adapted to apply a force to the load bearing arm and may have a first end connected to a first portion of the parallelogram linkage and a second end connected to the adjustment member. Movement of the toggle linkage to the load bearing position engages the forces of the resilient members and movement of the adjustment member varies the distance to adjust a support vector adapted to counterbalance the load vector.

Counterbalance apparatus and/or method for supporting a load

An actuator for an ultrasound probe comprises a housing assembly configured to accommodate an ultrasound probe and to be positioned adjacent to a target region of interest to be examined, and a motor assembly coupled to the housing assembly, the motor assembly configured to move the housing assembly in a manner to allow an ultrasound probe when accommodated by the housing assembly to perform a compound scan of the target region of interest.

Actuator for moving an ultrasound probe

A mechanical tracking system comprises a first set of linkage arms, a second set of linkage arms, a pair of shafts connected at a first end to one arm of the first set of linkage arms and at a second end to one arm of said second set of the linkage arms, wherein each arm of the second set of linkage arms is oriented out of phase with a respective arm of the first set of linkage arms, an attachment shaft positioned adjacent to the first set of linkage arms to accommodate a tool, and a sensor arrangement configured to sense the orientation and position of the attachment shaft.

Mechanical tracking system

A method of registering the position of an object moving in a target volume in an ultrasound imaging system includes capturing a first ultrasound image of a target volume. A second ultrasound image of the target volume is then captured after the capturing of the first ultrasound image. The position of the object in the target volume is identified using differences detected between the first and second ultrasound images. In another aspect, a region of interest in the target volume is determined. A segment of an operational scan range of a transducer of the ultrasound imaging system encompassing the region of interest is determined. The transducer is focused on the segment of the operational scan range during image capture.

Ultrasound imaging system and methods of imaging using the same

A mechanical arm assembly comprises an arm rotatable about a pivot, a first force generating device for maintaining the arm at a datum, and a second force generating device for compensating for the first generating device to maintain the arm in positions other than the datum.

Counterbalance assembly

A system and method for performing a biopsy of a target volume and a computing device for planning the same are provided. A three-dimensional ultrasound transducer captures ultrasound volume data from the target volume. A three-dimensional registration module registers the ultrasound volume data with supplementary volume data related to the target volume. A biopsy planning module processes the ultrasound volume data and the supplementary volume data in combination in order to develop a biopsy plan for the target volume. A biopsy needle biopsies the target volume in accordance with the biopsy plan.

System and method for performing a biopsy of a target volume and a computing device for planning the same

Biopsy of the prostate using 2D transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guidance is the current gold standard for diagnosis of prostate cancer; however, the current procedure is limited by using 2D biopsy tools to target 3D biopsy locations. We have discovered a technique for patient-specific 3D prostate model reconstruction from a sparse collection of non-parallel 2D TRUS biopsy images. Our method can be easily integrated with current TRUS biopsy equipment and could be incorporated into current clinical biopsy procedures for needle guidance without the need for expensive hardware additions. We have demonstrated the model reconstruction technique using simulated biopsy images from 3D TRUS prostate images of 10 biopsy patients. This technique of model reconstruction is not limited to the prostate, but can be applied to the reconstruction of any tissue acquired with non-parallel 2-dimensional ultrasound images.

3D tissue model formation from non-parallel 2D images

Segmenting the prostate boundary is essential in determining the dose plan needed for a successful bracytherapy procedure&#x2014;an effective and commonly used treatment for prostate cancer. However, manual segmentation is time consuming and can introduce inter and intra-operator variability. This present invention describes an algorithm for segmenting the prostate from two dimensional ultrasound (2D US) images, which can be full-automatic, with some assumptions of image acquisition. Segmentation begins with the user assuming the center of the prostate to be at the center of the image for the fully-automatic version. The image is then filtered to identify prostate edge candidates. The next step removes most of the false edges and keeps as many true edges as possible. Then, domain knowledge is used to remove any prostate boundary candidates that are probably false edge pixels. The image is then scanned along radial lines and only the first-detected boundary candidates are kept the final step includes the removal of some remaining false edge pixels by fitting a polynomial to the image points and removing the point with the maximum distance from the fit. The resulting candidate edges form an initial model that is then deformed using the Discrete Dynamic Contour (DDC) model to obtain a closed contour of the prostate boundary.

Method for automatic boundary segmentation of object in 2D and/or 3D image

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London, Canada

Aaron Fenster