Method and apparatus for intravascular brachytherapy treatment planning

摘要

A method for providing intravascular brachytherapy includes the step of positioning a radiation source within a target area to be radiation and orienting the attenuator found on the catheter. Once the attenuator or shield is properly oriented, a reference or normalization point or marker (508) is selected. This reference marker (508) can placed, as one example, on the external elastic lamina closest to catheter (100) and can serve as a reference point for the brachytherapy treatment. Several other points of interest can be is selected (504, 506, 510) on the image (500) or images that have been gathered of the treatment site, with dosage levels (512, 522, 520 and 518) being display automatically on the display (406) close to the IVUS image (500).