The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 24, 1998
Filed:
Feb. 19, 1997
John J Barni, Mayfield Village, OH (US);
Kenneth L Freeman, Stow, OH (US);
Gary A Kaufmann, Hinckley, OH (US);
Darrell M Smith, Cleveland Heights, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Highland Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
A radiation source which generates a radiation cone-beam (14) and a two-dimensional radiation detector are spiralled continuously around and longitudinally relative to an imaging volume. Image data from the two-dimensional display is reconstructed (30.sub.1, 30.sub.2, . . . 30.sub.n) into a volumetric, physiological image stored in a subject memory (32). During an interventional surgical procedure with a surgical instrument (42), the x-ray source is gated to operate intermittently, e.g., at 60.degree. angular intervals, at a reduced radiation intensity by an x-ray tube control (40). The additional data is reconstructed into a three-dimensional image representation of the surgical instrument and stored in an instrument memory (34). An operator image selection processor (60) causes data retrieval circuits (62a, 62b) to retrieve like slices or other image representations from the subject and instrument memories. The retrieved data is combined (64) such that a resultant human-readable display (68) shows the instrument superimposed on the anatomical image. The surgical instrument volumetric image is continuously updated such that the display represents a real time display of the surgical instrument illustrating its advancement through the imaging region.