SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NAVIGATION WITHIN A BRANCHED STRUCTURE OF A BODY
First Claim
1. A method for navigating a medical instrument within a branched structure of a body, the medical instrument including a tracking sensor attached thereto, the sensor being part of a tracking system, and the method comprising:
- providing data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, the data including coordinates for predetermined points, with respect to a frame of reference of the model, the predetermined points defining a pathway, which pathway extends along branches of the model of the structure;
displaying a representation of the model;
positioning the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body such that a location of the tracking sensor approximately coincides with a location in the structure that corresponds to one of the predetermined points of the pathway that has been designated as a reference point of a model coordinate system in the model frame of reference;
establishing an anchor point for a tracking coordinate system, in a frame of reference of the tracking system, that corresponds to the reference point of the model coordinate system, when the location of the tracking sensor coincides with the predetermined point of the pathway designated as the reference point of the model coordinate system;
advancing the medical instrument along a registration path, within the branched structure, from the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, while simultaneously collecting positional information from the tracking sensor to track a Euclidean distance between the sensor and the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, the registration path including a plurality of non-collinear points, and the medical instrument being advanced, at least, until a tracked distance for each of the plurality of non-collinear points equals a corresponding Euclidean distance for each of a plurality of other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system;
identifying a set of coordinates for the tracking sensor, in the tracking coordinate system, when the tracking sensor is located at the corresponding Euclidean distance for each of the other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system;
registering the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system by deriving a mathematical transformation, which relates the model frame of reference to the tracking system frame of reference, using the identified sets of coordinates for the tracking sensor and the corresponding coordinates of the other designated predetermined points of the pathway;
collecting registered sets of coordinates of the tracking sensor while moving the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body; and
displaying, on the displayed presentation of the model, a virtual representation of the tracking sensor corresponding to at least some of the collected registered sets of coordinates, in order to provide navigation guidance for the movement of the instrument.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for navigating a medical instrument in a branched structure of a body employs a tracking system, for collecting positional information for the medical instrument, and data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, in particular, coordinates for predetermined points defining a pathway extending along branches of the model. Coordinates are identified for each Euclidean distance of the instrument, from an anchor point of a coordinate system for the tracking system, that corresponds to a Euclidean distance of a designated point, of the predetermined points, from a reference point of a coordinate system for the model, wherein the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system has been established to correspond to the reference point of the model coordinate system. The two coordinate systems are registered to one another via a mathematical transformation using the identified coordinates of the instrument and the corresponding coordinates of each designated point.
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Citations
49 Claims
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1. A method for navigating a medical instrument within a branched structure of a body, the medical instrument including a tracking sensor attached thereto, the sensor being part of a tracking system, and the method comprising:
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providing data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, the data including coordinates for predetermined points, with respect to a frame of reference of the model, the predetermined points defining a pathway, which pathway extends along branches of the model of the structure; displaying a representation of the model; positioning the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body such that a location of the tracking sensor approximately coincides with a location in the structure that corresponds to one of the predetermined points of the pathway that has been designated as a reference point of a model coordinate system in the model frame of reference; establishing an anchor point for a tracking coordinate system, in a frame of reference of the tracking system, that corresponds to the reference point of the model coordinate system, when the location of the tracking sensor coincides with the predetermined point of the pathway designated as the reference point of the model coordinate system; advancing the medical instrument along a registration path, within the branched structure, from the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, while simultaneously collecting positional information from the tracking sensor to track a Euclidean distance between the sensor and the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, the registration path including a plurality of non-collinear points, and the medical instrument being advanced, at least, until a tracked distance for each of the plurality of non-collinear points equals a corresponding Euclidean distance for each of a plurality of other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system; identifying a set of coordinates for the tracking sensor, in the tracking coordinate system, when the tracking sensor is located at the corresponding Euclidean distance for each of the other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system; registering the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system by deriving a mathematical transformation, which relates the model frame of reference to the tracking system frame of reference, using the identified sets of coordinates for the tracking sensor and the corresponding coordinates of the other designated predetermined points of the pathway; collecting registered sets of coordinates of the tracking sensor while moving the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body; and displaying, on the displayed presentation of the model, a virtual representation of the tracking sensor corresponding to at least some of the collected registered sets of coordinates, in order to provide navigation guidance for the movement of the instrument. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A system for navigating a medical instrument within a branched structure of a body, the system comprising:
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a tracking system for collecting information defining a position of the medical instrument with respect to a frame of reference of the tracking system; and a workstation including a database, a processor and a display, the processor coupled to the database and coupled to the tracking system, to receive the positional information therefrom, and the display coupled to the processor; the database including data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, the data including coordinates for predetermined points, with respect to a model coordinate system in a frame of reference of the model, the predetermined points defining a pathway along branches of the model of the branched structure and including a designated point, serving as a reference point for the model coordinate system, and a plurality of other designated points; the processor adapted to; receive input for establishing an anchor point of a coordinate system for the frame of reference of the tracking system, the anchor point corresponding to the first designated point of the pathway; convert the positional information, collected by the tracking system, into Euclidean distances of the instrument from the established anchor point of the tracking coordinate system; identify sets of coordinates of the instrument for each Euclidean distance of the instrument from the established anchor point that corresponds to a Euclidean distance of one of the plurality of other designated points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system; register the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system by deriving a mathematical transformation, which relates the model frame of reference to the tracking frame of reference, using the identified sets of coordinates of the instrument and the corresponding coordinates of the plurality of other designated points of the pathway; and map locations of the instrument to the pathway by continuing to convert positional information for the instrument into Euclidean distances from the established anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, following registration of the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system; and the display adapted to receive data from the database, to display a representation of the model, to receive mapped locations of the instrument, from the processor, and to display the mapped locations of the instrument, on the representation of the model. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method for registering a coordinate system of a frame of reference of a tracking system to a coordinate system of a frame of reference of a geometrical model, the tracking system collecting information defining a position of a medical instrument, to be navigated in a branched structure of a body, the position with respect to the frame of reference of the tracking system, the geometrical model being defined by data which includes coordinates for predetermined points defining a pathway along branches of the branched structure, and the method comprising:
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positioning the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body such that a location of the instrument approximately coincides with a location in the structure that corresponds to one of the predetermined points of the pathway that has been designated as a reference point of the model coordinate system; establishing an anchor point for the tracking coordinate system that corresponds to the reference point of the model coordinate system, when the location of the instrument coincides with the predetermined point of the pathway designated as the reference point of the model coordinate system; advancing the medical instrument along a registration path, within the branched structure, from the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, while simultaneously collecting positional information from the tracking system to track a Euclidean distance between the instrument and the anchor point of the tracking coordinate system, the registration path including a plurality of non-collinear points, and the instrument being advanced, at least, until a tracked distance for each of the plurality of non-collinear points equals a corresponding Euclidean distance for each of a plurality of other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system; identifying a set of coordinates for the instrument, in the tracking coordinate system, when the instrument is located at the corresponding Euclidean distances for each of the other designated predetermined points, of the pathway, from the reference point of the model coordinate system; and deriving a mathematical transformation, which relates the model frame of reference to the tracking system frame of reference, using the identified sets of coordinates for the instrument and the corresponding coordinates of the other designated predetermined points of the pathway, to register the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method for navigating a medical instrument within a branched structure of a body, the medical instrument including a tracking sensor attached thereto, the sensor being part of a tracking system, and the method comprising:
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providing data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, the data including coordinates for predetermined points, with respect to a frame of reference of the model, the predetermined points defining a pathway, which pathway extends along branches of the model of the structure; displaying a representation of the model; sequentially advancing the medical instrument in first, second and third directions, within the branched structure, while simultaneously collecting positional information from the tracking sensor to calculate a trajectory of the sensor in each of the three directions, the medical instrument being advanced in each of the three directions, at least, until the calculated trajectory, in each of the three directions, approximately matches a contour of a portion of the pathway defined by a subset of the predetermined points; identifying sets of coordinates for the tracking sensor, in the tracking coordinate system, which correspond to each approximately matched trajectory of the sensor; registering the tracking coordinate system to the model coordinate system by deriving a mathematical transformation, which relates the model frame of reference to the tracking system frame of reference, using the identified sets of coordinates for the tracking sensor and corresponding coordinates of each corresponding subset of predetermined points; and collecting registered sets of coordinates of the tracking sensor to display a virtual representation of the tracking sensor on the displayed presentation of the model, as the medical instrument is advanced within the branched structure, in order to provide guidance for the navigation of the instrument within the branched structure of the body. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
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48. A method for navigating a medical instrument within a branched structure of a body, the medical instrument including a tracking sensor attached thereto, the sensor being part of a tracking system, and the method comprising:
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providing data, which defines a geometrical model of the branched structure, the data including coordinates for predetermined points, with respect to a frame of reference of the model, the predetermined points defining a pathway, which pathway extends along branches of the model of the structure; displaying a representation of the model; registering a tracking coordinate system, in a frame of reference of the tracking system, to a model coordinate system in the frame of reference of the model; collecting registered sets of coordinates of the tracking sensor, while moving the medical instrument within the branched structure of the body; displaying, on the displayed presentation of the model, a virtual representation of the tracking sensor corresponding to at least some of the collected registered sets of coordinates, in order to provide navigation guidance for the movement of the instrument; measuring at least one parameter corresponding to two of the collected registered sets of coordinates, the at least one parameter including one or both of;
a time between the collection of the two registered sets of coordinates and a distance between the two collected registered sets of coordinates; andstoring the measure of the at least one parameter. - View Dependent Claims (49)
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Specification