Gated image acquisition and patient model construction
AssigneeMedtronic Navigation, Inc.
InventorsPatrick A. Helm, Shuanghe Shi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system is disclosed for acquiring image data of a subject. The image data can be collected with an imaging system with at least two different power characteristics. A volumetric model of multiple phases can be reconstructed using dynamic or enhanced reconstruction techniques.
Claims20
A system to acquire image data of a patient with an imaging system using enhanced contrast imaging, comprising:
- an imaging system having a source including a first energy source to emit first x-rays having one or more first energy parameters and a second energy source to emit second x-rays having one or more second energy parameters and a detector to detect the first x-rays and the second x-rays from the source, wherein the first x-rays have a different energy than the second x-rays, wherein the second energy parameters include a second voltage that is about 40 kV to about 60 kV different than a first voltage of the first energy parameters and a second amperage that is about 20 mA to about 150 mA different than a first amperage of the first energy parameters;
- an imaging system controller that is configured to execute instructions to control image data acquisition and movement of the imaging system including a gantry, the detector, or the source in a non-symmetrical and non-360° rotation path relative to the patient to acquire image data of the patient, wherein the gantry is operable to be moved during image data acquisition to achieve the rotation path of the source or detector, wherein the acquired image data is acquired at both the first energy parameters of the x-rays and the second energy parameters of the x-rays and the image data is included in a process of reconstruction of a first model and a second model;
- a pump configured and operated to inject a contrast agent into the patient in response to a pump instruction;
- a controller in communication with the imaging system controller and the pump to provide the pump instruction to cause injection of the contrast agent at a known time relative to the acquisition of the image data;
- and
- a three-dimensional model reconstruction system that is configured to execute instructions to perform an iterative process using the acquired image data to iteratively change a model to reconstruct the first model and the second model of at least a portion of the patient based upon the acquired image data, wherein the first model clearly identifies a first anatomical structure in a first anatomical phase that discriminates from surrounding features in the image data and the second model clearly identifies a second anatomical structure in a second anatomical phase that discriminates from surrounding features in the image data based on the acquired image data at both the first energy parameters and the second energy parameters, wherein the first anatomical phase is different from and represents a different anatomical position than the second anatomical phase;
- a display device to display the first model and the second model;
- wherein the imaging system controller is operable to communicate with the pump through the controller by providing the pump instruction to control initiation and timing of the injection of the contrast agent into the patient and to acquire the image data based upon the initiation and timing of the injection of the contrast agent and the path;
- wherein the image data includes a first phase image data of the first anatomical phase and a second phase image data of the second anatomical phase for reconstruction of the first model of first anatomical structure of the first anatomical phase based on the first phase image data and the second model of the second anatomical structure of the second anatomical phase based on the second phase image data.
A system to acquire image data of a patient with an imaging system using enhanced contrast imaging, comprising:
- an imaging system having:
- (i) a configurable annular gantry,
- (ii) a first energy source to emit first x-rays with one or more first energy parameters and a second energy source to emit second x-rays with one or more second energy parameters, wherein both the first energy source and the second energy source are positioned in a source unit controllably moveable within the configurable annular gantry, wherein the first x-rays have a different energy than the second x-rays, wherein the second energy parameters include a second voltage that is about 40 KV to about 60 KV different than a first voltage of the first energy parameters and a second amperage that is about 20 mA to about 150 mA different than a first amperage of the first energy parameters;
- and
- (iii) a mobile cart having at least one wheel operable to allow the cart to be moved by a user, wherein the configurable annular gantry is coupled to the mobile cart, wherein the mobile cart is operable to allow movement of the configurable annular gantry and the mobile cart from a first location to a second location and the configurable annular gantry is operable to move relative to the mobile cart, wherein the gantry is movably connected to the mobile cart to at least one of (a) tilt relative to the patient, (b) move longitudinally relative to a longitudinal axis of the patient, (c) move up and down relative to the longitudinal axis of the patient, or (d) move transversely relative to the longitudinal axis of the patient;
- a pump operable to inject a contrast agent into the patient in response to an instruction;
- a controller in communication with the imaging system and the pump, wherein the controller is operable to control movement of the source unit within the configurable annular gantry and movement of the configurable annular gantry to move the source unit along a selected path relative to the patient, which may be a non-360° rotation, determined by the controller;
- a timer operable to determine an amount of time that has passed since the beginning of an injection of the contrast agent by the pump into the patient;
- a patient tracking device configured to track a location of the patient during an acquisition of image data;
- an imaging system tracking device connected to the configurable annular gantry to track the configurable annular gantry during the acquisition of image data;
- a three-dimensional model reconstruction system that is configured to execute instructions to perform an iterative process using the acquired image data to iteratively update a model to reconstruct the first model and the second model, wherein the first model is of a first anatomical structure of a first anatomical phase based on the acquired image data at the first energy parameters and the second model is of a second anatomical structure of a second anatomical phase based on the acquired image data at the second energy parameters, wherein the first anatomical phase is different from and represents a different anatomical position than the second anatomical phase;
- wherein the first model and the second model are configured to be displayed with a display device;
- wherein the controller is configured to control a first source path of the first energy source, a second source path of the second energy source, and an emission of energy from at least one of the first energy source or the second energy source to time image data acquisition of the patient based on the determined amount of time that has passed from the injection of the contrast agent to allow determination from the image data the first model image data and the second model image data;
- wherein the controller communicates with the imaging system and the pump regarding timing of the injection of the contrast agent into the patient, acquiring image data based upon the timing of the injection of the contrast agent and the first source path of the first energy source and the second source path of the second energy source, and gating acquiring the image data based on a physiological event of the patient;
- wherein the image data is registered to the patient at least by the tracking of the patient with the patient tracking device, the tracking of the configurable annular gantry with the image system tracking device, and the controlled movement of the source unit relative to the patient to generate the image data of the patient;
- wherein from the first model image data a first model is operable to be reconstructed and from the second model image data a second model is operable to be reconstructed;
- wherein both of the reconstructed first model and the reconstructed second model are operable to be displayed with a display device;
- and
- wherein an icon is operable to be displayed with the display device based at least on tracking the patient tracker and the registration of the image data to the patient.
A system to acquire image data of a patient with an imaging system using enhanced contrast imaging, comprising:
- an imaging system having a configurable annular gantry and a mobile cart, wherein the configurable annular gantry is operable to move relative to the mobile cart;
- a first energy source with one or more first energy parameters and a second energy source with one or more second energy parameters that are controllably positioned as a source unit within the configurable annular gantry, wherein the second energy parameters include a second voltage that is about 40 kV to about 60 kV different than a first voltage of the first energy parameters and a second amperage that is about 20 mA to about 150 mA different than a first amperage of the first energy parameters;
- a pump operable to inject a contrast agent into the patient in response to a pump instruction;
- a controller in communication with the imaging system and the pump to provide the pump instruction to cause injection of the contrast agent related to the acquisition of the image data;
- an image data indexer, wherein acquired image data is acquired of the patient over time at both the first energy parameters and the second energy parameters and time stamped by a timer and wherein the image data indexer is operable to execute instructions to segregate the acquired image data and determine whether a selected portion of the acquired image data is regarding a first phase image data regarding a first anatomical phase or a second phase image data regarding a second anatomical phase based on at least one of the indexed time of the acquired image data, prior knowledge of the physiology of the patient, and anatomy of the patient;
- a display device;
- a three-dimensional model reconstruction system operable to execute instructions to perform an iterative process to reconstruct a first model with the first image phase image data and a second model with the second image phase image data;
- wherein the iterative process includes iteratively changing an image data projection until the image data projection selectively matches the acquired image data of to form an appropriate reconstruction model;
- wherein the first model is of a first anatomical structure of a first anatomical phase and the second model is of a second anatomical structure of a second anatomical phase, wherein the first anatomical phase is different and represents a different anatomical position from the second anatomical phase;
- and
- wherein the display device is configured to display the first model and the second model;
- wherein the mobile cart has a set of wheels operable to allow the mobile cart to move the configurable annular pantry and an attached detector and the source unit from a first operating room to a second operating room;
- wherein the imaging system is operable to communicate with the pump through the controller regarding timing of the injection of the contrast agent into the patient and is further operable to acquire the image data based upon the timing of the injection of the contrast agent an optimal source path to acquire the image data at the first energy parameters and the second energy parameters;
- wherein the optimal source path is operable to include image data acquisition and movement of at least one of the configurable annular gantry, detector, or the source unit in a non-symmetrical and non-360° rotation path relative to the patient to acquire image data of the patient;
- wherein the acquired image data is acquired at both the first energy parameters and the second energy parameters and is operable for reconstruction of the first model and the second model;
- wherein the first model of the first anatomical structure and the second model of the second anatomical structure are operable to be displayed with the display device to illustrate the first anatomical structure of the patient and the second anatomical structure of the patient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.