Co-registration of coronary artery computed tomography and fluoroscopic sequence

A system for displaying real-time imagery of coronary arteries, comprising:

• a first medical imaging device for acquiring three-dimensional image data of coronary arteries;
• a second medical imaging device for acquiring real-time image data of the coronary arteries;
• an image processing device for co-registering the acquired three-dimensional image data with the real-time image data and distorting the three-dimensional image data in real-time to continuously align with the real-time image data;
• and
• a display device for displaying the real-time image data superimposed with the continuously aligned three-dimensional image data.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a program storage device readable by the computer system, embodying a program of instructions executable by the processor to perform method steps for displaying real-time imagery of coronary arteries, the method comprising:
• acquiring three-dimensional image data of coronary arteries using a three-dimensional medical imaging device;
• acquiring real-time image data of the coronary arteries using one or more fluoroscopes;
• co-registering the three-dimensional image data with the real-time image data using an image processing device;
• and
• displaying the co-registered image data in real-time using a display device, wherein co-registering the three-dimensional image data with the real-time image data includes:
• segmenting the three-dimensional image data;
• identifying a vessel structure within the segmented image data by detecting a centerline path;
• determining an optimal articulation of the one or more fluoroscopes and setting each of the one or more fluoroscopes to the respective optimal articulation while real-time image data is acquired;
• performing an initial co-registration of coronary arteries using the identified vessel structure within the three-dimensional image data and the real-time image data;
• automatically estimating a registration matrix for the three-dimensional image data and the real-time image data based on the initial co-registration;
• and
• rendering a hybrid visualization by combining the three-dimensional image data and the real-time image data according to the estimated registration matrix.