SYNCHRONIZATION OF MEDICAL IMAGING SYSTEMS

• US 20120170825A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Vaillant, Régis
• Granted Patent: US 8,879,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/132
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/352 Detecting R peaks, e.g. for synchronising diagnostic apparatus; Estimating R-R interval
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/00 Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis; Apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis combined with radiation therapy equipment instruments measuring radiation intensity for application in the field of nuclear medicine, e.g. in vivo counting, G01T1/161; apparatus for taking X-ray photographs G03B42/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/463 characterised by displaying multiple images or images and diagnostic data on one display

Abstract

A method for interventional imaging of synchronizing a first dataset with a second dataset is provided. The datasets represent a region of interest in a patient, wherein the first dataset and the second dataset each corresponding to two different types of information on the region of interest and wherein the datasets are acquired by separate medical systems. The method comprises aligning the first dataset and the second dataset with at least two signals representing a physiological activity of the patient, the at least two signals having been recorded by the medical systems on a common time scale with the time scale used for acquiring the datasets.

Claims

1. A method for interventional imaging of synchronizing a first dataset with a second dataset, wherein the datasets represent a region of interest in a patient, the first dataset and the second dataset each corresponding to two different types of information on the region of interest, and wherein the datasets are acquired by separate medical systems, the method comprising:

aligning the first dataset and the second dataset with at least two signals representing a physiological activity of the patient, the at least two signals having been recorded by the medical systems on a common time scale with the time scale used for acquiring the datasets.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a dataset is a succession of images in which the region of interest of the patient can be visualized.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein aligning the datasets comprises synchronizing the at least two signals representing a physiological activity to determine a time shift between the at least two signals.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein synchronizing the at least two signals representing a physiological activity comprises correlating the at least two signals representing the patient'"'"'s physiological activity to each dataset, wherein the time shift between the at least two signals corresponds to maximum correlation.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein one dataset is offset from the other dataset, and wherein aligning the datasets further comprises applying the determined time shift to the acquisition times of the dataset offset from the other dataset.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the physiological activity of the patient comprises the patient'"'"'s heart or patient'"'"'s respiratory movement.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least two signals representing the patient'"'"'s physiological activity is partly or fully modulated with an external aperiodic signal generated by a source external to one or other of the medical systems.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first dataset is derived from acquisitions by an intravascular image sensor, and wherein the second dataset is derived from acquisitions by an X-ray medical imaging system, the data being images.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying the data of the datasets aligned with each other.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring, on a first common time scale, the first dataset and the signal representing the patient'"'"'s physiological activity acquired by the first medical system; and

acquiring, on a second common time scale, the second dataset and the signal representing the patient'"'"'s physiological activity acquired by the second medical system.

11. A processing unit connected to at least two medical imaging systems, the processing unit is configured to:

synchronize a first dataset with a second dataset, wherein the datasets represent a region of interest in a patient, the first dataset and the second dataset each corresponding to two different types of information on the region of interest, and wherein the datasets are acquired by separate systems of the at least two medical imaging systems; and

align the first dataset and the second dataset with at least two signals representing a physiological activity of the patient, the at least two signals having been recorded by the medical systems on a common time scale with the time scale used for acquiring the datasets.