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Automatically positioned focussed energy system guided by medical imaging

  • US 5,526,814 A
  • Filed: 05/17/1995
  • Issued: 06/18/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/09/1993
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An automatically positioned focussed energy system allowing a physician to selectively heat a region of a patient, comprising:

  • a) an open magnet magnetic resonance (MR) imaging means for providing images of internal structures of said patient;

    b) an energy transducer means for focusing energy at a focal point;

    c) tracking means for determining the position and orientation of the focal point of the energy transducer means;

    d) display means for displaying an image;

    e) general purpose computer means coupled to the tracking means, the MR imaging means, and the display means, for creating a computer generated model from the images provided by the MR imaging means having internal structures which simulate internal structures of said patient, for creating an image of the model, for receiving the location and orientation of the energy transducer means and its focal point from the tracking means, for directing the MR imaging system to acquire an actual image of internal structures of the patient at an oblique plane near the energy transducer means, and for mixing the image of the model with the actual image acquired at the oblique plane to produce a composite image and for providing the composite image to the display means for display;

    f) a superposition device coupled to the tracking means and display means which functions to receive the position and orientation of the energy transducer means and superimpose a symbol indicating the position and orientation of the focal point of the energy transducer means on the composite image of the display means;

    g) a pointing device coupled to the general purpose computer means, for interacting with said physician to select an internal structure of the model to be destroyed; and

    h) actuating means coupled to the general purpose computer means for receiving locations corresponding to the selected internal structure and scanning the focal point of the energy transducer means through these locations.

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