System and catheter for image guidance and methods thereof

A method of ablation lesion monitoring and assessment an ablation site in a tissue of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a catheter-based imaging system including
• a catheter having an imaging core that is arranged for linear translation and rotation,
• an imaging engine having a processing unit and a display, and
• a titrator that maps contiguity and transmurality of the ablative lesions;
• acquiring baseline image data at the ablation site with the imaging core prior to ablating;
• acquiring post-ablation image data at the ablation site after ablating;
• compensating the baseline image data and post-ablation image data for motion;
• co-registering the baseline image data and the post-ablation image data to produce co-registered image data;
• segmenting the co-registered image data of a left atrial wall of the patient from surrounding tissue to produce segmented image data;
• calculating ultrasound tissue classifiers of the segmented image data;
• mapping the contiguity and transmurality of ablative lesions responsive to the ultrasound tissue classifiers;
• and
• providing an indication on the display based on the ultrasound tissue classifiers.