Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.

David L Wilson

Ming-Yee Chiu

A common application of X-ray fluoroscopy is in monitoring the location of a catheter inside a body. Such catheters may be used for balloon angioplasty, laser ablation, or like procedures that are now often used in place of traditional invasive surgery. Reliable and fast determination of the tip location from the fluoro images using the digital image processing technique is required. The present invention relates to a method for tracking a catheter probe or similar object during a fluoroscopic procedure as may be utilized, for example, in conjunction with apparatus and methods that confine full X-ray dosage to a central area, compensating for the reduced X-ray dosage in the peripheral areas by computer imaging enhancement.

Method for tracking a catheter probe during a fluoroscopic procedure

The present invention is a method for locating an edge portion of an aperture in an X-ray filter member having at least one aperture formed therethrough, such that X-rays passing through the at least one aperture remain unattenuated and strike a subject body in a common region and wherein the X-rays passing through the filter member are attenuated and strike the subject body in a pattern that surrounds, and is adjacent to, the common region.

Method for locating an edge portion of an aperture in a filter member in

The present invention is an apparatus and method for reducing the dosage of X-rays during a fluoroscopic procedure wherein a filter member is used to selectively attenuate the X-ray radiation striking a patient's body. The filter member allows unattenuated X-rays to image an area of interest selected by a physician, thus producing a high intensity, low noise image. However, the areas surrounding the area of interest are imaged with attenuated radiation producing a less intense, more noisy image. A real-time image processing system is used to compensate the image brightness and to potentially filter the compensated region so as to reduce noise. Image quality is thus restored so that a physician can orient the location of a procedure, within a patient's body, and have perspective to the position of area of interest relative to its surroundings.

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Shaker Heights, OH, United States of America

David L Wilson