Coronary tracking display

Abstract

A method of displaying details of a coronary artery lesion in a cineangiogram, by digitally adjusting each frame of the cineangiogram so that the lesion is continually displayed at a fixed location on a display screen. The remaining cardiac anatomy appears to move, in background, past a stationary arterial segment, thus making the displayed arterial segment easier to identify and to examine by medical personnel. Cineangiographic image frames are digitized and processed by an image processor and the image frames are digitally shifted to place the arterial segment in substantially the same viewing location in each frame. Sequential image frames may be presented to the viewer as a stereoscopic pair, to produce pseudostereopsis. The arterial segment appears to the viewer in foreground, as if it was floating in front of the remaining cardiac anatomy. Image frames may be further processed to aid examination by medical personnel. Frames may be averaged to reduce quantum noise and to blur any structure noise. Frame averaging may be used to make numerical measurements of arterial cross-section.

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