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:
Sep. 03, 2013
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2011
Wilhelm Strehl, Nuremberg, DE;
Wesley D. Gilson, Pasadena, MD (US);
Eva Rothgang, Nürnberg, DE;
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, München, DE;
Abstract
A method for tracking a needle along a path under real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guidance includes extracting a candidate needle artifact region from a plurality of incoming MR images of a needle inside biological tissue, determining an initial needle direction vector from the candidate needle artifact region in each of the plurality of incoming needle images, determining an initial needle base point from an intersection of the needle direction vector with a first incoming needle image, and an initial needle tip point from an intersection of the needle direction vector with a last incoming needle image, and tracking said needle by minimizing a cost function of the initial base point and initial direction vector to calculate an updated base point and updated direction vector. The updated base point and direction vector are used to visualize the advance of the needle along the path through the biological tissue.