Enhanced catheter navigation methods and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11523875-B2
Application number	US-202016840959-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 6, 2020
Priority date	Apr 6, 2020
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and systems are provided for facilitating the navigation of a catheter between first and second locations within a subject based on display of serial images corresponding to positions of the catheter at successive incremental times. Image production includes sensing catheter positions to produce location data for each time increment. For each position P i , the corresponding location data is processed to respectively produce an image I i reflecting the position of the catheter at a time T i . Each image I i is successively displayed at a time equal to T i +d, where d is an image processing visualization delay. Upon a condition that the catheter is displaced to a selected interim location between the first and second locations, the processing of the location data is switched from being performed by a first process associated with a first visualization delay to a second process associated with a second different visualization delay.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for facilitating the navigation of a distal end of a catheter from a first location within a subject to a second location within the subject with reference to images reflecting relative positions of the distal catheter end as the distal catheter end is displaced from the first location to the second location, the method comprising:
displaying a series of images, each corresponding to a position of the distal catheter end at a successive time, as the distal catheter end is displaced from the first location to the second location based on a selected time increment, including:
sensing the location of the distal end of the catheter at one or more selected rates to produce location data of the catheter corresponding to a position P i of the catheter distal end at a time T i for each time increment as the distal catheter end is displaced from the first location to the second location;
for each position P i , processing the location data corresponding to the position P i to respectively produce an image I i reflecting the position of the distal catheter end at the time T i ;
and
successively displaying each image I i at a time equal to T i +d seconds, where d is a visualization delay that includes the time spent to process the location data corresponding to the position P i to produce the image I i ; and
upon a condition that the catheter distal end is displaced to a selected interim location between the first and second locations, the processing of the location data corresponding to positions P i to respectively produce images I i reflecting the position of the distal catheter end at times T i is switched from being performed by a first process associated with a first visualization delay that produces serial images of catheter movement that have a first characteristic to a second process associated with a second different visualization delay that produces serial images of catheter movement that have a second different characteristic than the serial images produced by the first process,
wherein a process that produces images having heartbeat movement removed includes applying a Gaussian Filter.

2. The method of claim 1 where the interim and second locations are within a beating heart of the subject wherein:
one process of the first and second processes is associated with a longer visualization delay that produces images having heartbeat movement removed; and
the other process of the first and second processes is associated with a shorter visualization delay that produces images that reflect heartbeat movement.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the time increment is selected to be 16.7 ms so that a series of 60 images are produced each second reflective of 60 positions P i .

4. The method of claim 3 wherein:
the one process that produces images having heartbeat movement removed includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 60 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the one process is approximately 500 ms; and
the other process that produces images reflecting heartbeat movement includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window in a range of 12 to 26 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is within a respective range of approximately 100 ms to approximately 216 ms.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the other process that produces images reflecting heartbeat movement is selected from one of the following processes:
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 12 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 100 ms;
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 20 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 166 ms; or
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 26 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 216 ms.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
selecting a region including the second location; and
sensing an entry position upon entry of the distal catheter end into the selected region as the interim location such that visualization processing is automatically switched from being performed by the first process to being performed by the second process upon entry of the distal catheter end into the selected region.

7. The method of claim 1 where the interim and second locations are within a beating heart of the subject wherein:
one process of the first and second processes is associated with a longer visualization delay that produces images that reflect heartbeat movement; and
the other process of the first and second processes is associated with a shorter visualization delay that produces images that reflect a greater amount of heartbeat movement produced by the one process.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the time increment is selected to be 16.7 ms so that a series of 60 images are produced reflective of 60 positions Pi each second.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the first and second processes includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window in a range of 12 to 60 positions such that the visualization delay associated with each process is within a respective range of approximately 100 ms to approximately 500 ms.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the first and second processes include two of the following processes:
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 12 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 100 ms;
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 20 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 166 ms; or
a process that includes applying a Gaussian Filter having a moving window of 26 positions such that the visualization delay associated with the other process is approximately 216 ms.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the images are displayed on a 60 Hz monitor.

12. A method for facilitating the navigation of a distal end of a catheter from a first location within a subject to a second location within the subject with reference to images reflecting relative positions of the distal catheter end as the distal catheter end is displaced from the first location to the second location, the method comprising:
displaying a series of images, each corresponding to a position of the distal catheter end at a successive time increment, as the distal catheter end is displaced from the first location at a time T 0 to the second location at a time T 0 +X seconds based on a selected time increment, including:
sensing the location of the distal end of the catheter at one or more selected rates to produce location data of the catheter corresponding to a position P i of the catheter distal end at a time T i for each time increment from T 0 to T 0 +X seconds;
for each position P i , processing the location data corresponding to the position P i to respectively produce an image I i reflecting the position of the distal catheter end at the time T i ; and
successively displaying each image I i at a time equal to T i +D, where D is a visualization delay that includes the time spent to process the location data corresponding to the position P i to produce the image I i ; and
upon a condition that the catheter distal end is displaced to a selected interim location at a time T 0 +(X−Y) seconds between the first and second locations, wherein X−Y represents a difference between X seconds and Y seconds at the

Assignees

• Biosense Webster Israel Ltd

Inventors

• Hayam Gal
• Bar-On Tal Haim
• Maydel Michael
• Eliyahu Shiran
• Hagla Wagdi Hani
• Turgeman Aharon

Classifications

• A61B34/25

  User interfaces for surgical systems · CPC title

• A61B2090/3782

  transmitter or receiver in catheter or minimal invasive instrument · CPC title

• G06T7/0012

  Biomedical image inspection · CPC title

• A61B34/20 Primary

  Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis · CPC title

• G06T2207/30048

  Heart; Cardiac · CPC title