Image annotation in image-guided medical procedures

#The embodiments herein disclosed relate to computer-assisted medical procedures and more specifically to image annotation in image-guided medical procedures.

#The past few decades have seen incredible developments of technology and systems for computer-assisted, image-based, and image-guided surgery and other medical procedures. These advances in image-guided surgery are tied in part to technical and scientific improvements in imaging and three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics. For example, some of the early work of in this field in the late 1980's provided new 3D graphics rendering techniques, medical image shape detection, and head-mounted displays. These are some of the building blocks of later image-guided surgery systems developed in the mid-1990's and thereafter. Image-guided surgery makes use of imaging to aid a surgeon in performing more effective and more accurate surgeries.

#Current image-guided surgery systems, however, do not provide adequate mechanisms to annotate images. The process of annotation is difficult and extremely time-consuming. Further, it would be difficult, disruptive, and time consuming for a surgeon or other operator to annotate an image during a medical procedure.

#FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate four example interfaces for image annotation in image-guided medical procedures.

#FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate example systems for image annotation in image-guided medical procedures.

#FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates an example method for image annotation in image-guided medical procedures.

#In some embodiments herein, an operator, surgeon or other medical practitioner may annotate images during an image-guided medical procedure. In some embodiments, the operator may use medical devices that are typically present during the medical procedure to annotation the medical images. As depicted in FIGS. 2A and 2B, and as described more below, an operator, such as a surgeon or other medical practitioner, may use a first medical device 245 (e.g., an ablation needle) and a second medical device 255 (e.g., an ultrasound transducer) during a medical procedure and one or both of these medical devices 245 and 255 may be used for image annotation.

#FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate examples of image annotation in image-guided medical procedures. FIGS. 1A-1D show a representation on a computer screen 120 of an annotation being made with a medical device (represented on the display 120 as medical device 145). The medical device may be used to annotate an image 156. FIG. 1A illustrates the manipulation of a needle 145 pointing at an image 156 (e.g., an ultrasound image 156). The operator can make an annotation by moving the needle 145 through space in order to draw curve 171 on image 156. Arrow 174 may indicate the direction that the operator plans to or will draw in the future. In some embodiments, arrow 174 is not displayed. Indicator 180 may represent the place on image 156 currently pointed to by needle 145. Indicator 180 may be any appropriate indicator such as an “X,” an arrow, a differently-colored area, etc. In FIG. 1B the operator has further moved needle 145 in order to complete the annotation 171 on image 156. As is depicted in FIG. 1B, the indicator 180 of the intersection between the axis of the needle 145 and the image 156 has now reached the lower-right quadrant of the image 156.

#The image 156 may be associated with a medical device, such as an ultrasound transducer (not pictured in FIGS. 1A-1D). The image 156 may be an ultrasound image 156, or the image 156 may be a slice or image from other 3D visualizable medical data such as is described in Image Management in Image-Guided Medical Procedures, to Sharif Razzaque et al., filed concurrently herewith, which is incorporated by reference for all purposes.