METHOD FOR IMAGING DURING INVASIVE PROCEDURES PERFORMED ON ORGANS AND TISSUES MOVING IN A RHYTHMIC FASHION

摘要

A method of virtually freezing the movement of the heart and its structures during invasive procedures such as catheterization, which is visualized using x-ray fluoroscopy (10), to yield anatomical information. The invention relies on the concept of comparing at least two images taken at different moments. After one of the images is defined as being a reference image (18), the processing software of the invention is capable of altering the second image by shifting any structures that have moved from their original position in the reference image, back to their original location as they appeared in the reference image (2S). Alignment of two images having similar content is termed 'image registration'. Thus, in images recorded successively, movement of the vasculature and the heart occurring during the cardiac cycle is eliminated on screen. The operator is provided with an additional screen with a 'virtually frozen' heart and 'frozen' arteries, to assist in diagnosis and in catheter navigation of the heart and vasculature.