Method and apparatus for recording a three-dimensional image of a body part

• US 6,259,942 B1
• Filed: 09/25/1998
• Issued: 07/10/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Brainlab AG
• Original Assignee: Surgical Navigation Specialists, Inc.
• Inventors: Hauser, Rolf, Westermann, Birgit
• Primary Examiner(s): PELHAM, JOSEPH MOORE
• Application Number:
  US09/247,186
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 600/414, 600/410, 600/425, 600/427, 600/429, 600/595, 606/130, 378/205, 378/206, 378/162, 378/163, 356/247, 356/248, 324/309, 324/319
• US Class Current: 600/426
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2055 Optical tracking systems
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2034/2072 Reference field transducer attached to an instrument or patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/363 Use of fiducial points
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/367 creating a 3D dataset from 2D images using position information
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3762 using computed tomography systems [CT]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3945 Active visible markers, e.g. light emitting diodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2090/3995 Multi-modality markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/043 in a linear array
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/20 Surgical navigation systems; Devices for tracking or guiding surgical instruments, e.g. for frameless stereotaxis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1114 Tracking parts of the body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1127 using markers
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/721 using a separate sensor to detect motion or using motion information derived from signals other than the physiological signal to be measured
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/08 Auxiliary means for directing the radiation beam to a particular spot, e.g. using light beams
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/527 using data from a motion artifact sensor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/16 Bite blocks

Abstract

While acquiring a tomographic image, the position of patient'"'"'s head is continuously measured and recorded. For this purpose, several cameras (5) are arranged at the tomograph (1). They measure the position of a reference device (4), which is mounted to the teeth of the patient'"'"'s upper jaw. Infrared-diodes are arranged on the reference device (4), the position of which is recorded by the cameras (5). This allows to measure the movements of the patient and to compensate for them when generating the tomographic image.

Claims

1. A method for recording a three dimensional image of a part of a patient'"'"'s body, wherein a plurality of individual scans acquired by first detector (1) is assembled to the three dimensional image, the method comprising the steps of:

characterized in that during acquiring said scans movement of the part of the body are detected by at least 1 second detector (5,6);

storing of position information of said part of said body corresponding to each of the acquired scans; and

compensating for the detected movements using said positional information when assembling the individual scans.

2. The method of claim 1, characterised in that the movements are detected optically.

3. The method of one of the preceding claims characterised in that reference markers (20) are connected to the part of the body and that the position of the reference markers is detected by the second detector (5).

4. The method of claim 3, characterised in that the reference markers (20) are mounted to a reference device (4), which is mounted to the part of the body.

5. The method of claim 4, characterised in that the part of the body is a head and that the reference device (4) is mounted to at least one tooth or tooth replacement of the upper jaw and, preferably, to no further parts of the head.

6. The method of one of the claims 4 or 5, characterised in at least three marks (23) detectable by the first detector (1) are arranged on the reference device (4), which marks (23) are used for determining the relative position between the first (1) and the second (5,6) detector.

7. The method of one of the claims 3-6, characterised in that information defining the positional relation of the reference markers (20) to the part of the body are stored together with the three-dimensional image.

8. The method of one of the preceding claims characterised in that the first detector (1) is a tomograph, preferably a NMR- or X-ray-tomograph, especially a computer tomograph.

9. The method of claim 8, charaterised in that the patient is resting on a table, the movement of which table is recorded.

10. An apparatus for recording a three dimensional image of a part of patient'"'"'s body by means of a first detector (1) for acquiring individual scans of the part of the body, the apparatus comprising:

a processing unit (7) for assembling the individual scans to the three dimensional image;

characterized in that a second detector (5,6) for measuring changes in the position in the part of the body while acquiring the individual scans; and

position information storage for recording said changes in said position of each of the individual scans, wherein the positional information of the second detector (5,6) are fed to the processing unit (7).

11. The apparatus of claim 10, characterized in that the second detector (5,6) comprises optical detectors.

12. The apparatus of one of the claims 10 or 11, characterised by a table measuring unit for detecting a movement of a table of the apparatus.

13. The apparatus of one of the claims 10 or 12, charaterised in that it comprises markers (9) mounted in defined relation to the first detector (1), the position of which markers is detectable by the second detector for determining the relative position between the first and second detectors.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, characterized in that the optical detectors are several cameras (5).

16. The apparatus of claim 11, characterized in that the first detector (1) is a tomograph selected from the group comprising NMR-, X-Ray-, and computer tomograph.

14. A reference device for being mounted to a head while acquiring a three-dimensional image of the head, characterised by a mouth piece (10) suited for mounting the reference device to at least one tooth of the upper jaw, to a tooth replacement or to a dental prosthesis, and further characterised by a reference member (1) suited for being detected by a position measuring system, wherein the reference member (11) is tiltable in respect to the mouth piece (10).

17. A reference device according to claim 14, wherein the tiltable reference member (11) facilitates the establishment of a selected orientation for each recording geometry.

18. A reference device according to claim 17 further comprising diodes (20) and reference points (23) positioned at different locations.

19. A reference device according to claim 17 further including a pair of bodies (18) of said reference member (11) that can be monitored independently for detecting a relative movement of the bodies (18).

20. A reference device according to claim 19, wherein a deformation of a geometry of said reference device (11) is determined by said relative movement.

21. An apparatus for recording a three dimensional image of a part of a patient'"'"'s body by means of a first detector (1) for acquiring individual scans of the part of the body, comprising a processing unit (7) for assembling the individual scans to the three dimensional image, characterized by a second detector (5,6) for measuring changes in the position of the part of the body while acquiring the individual scans, wherein results of the second detector (5,6) are fed to the processing unit (7), said apparatus further comprising markers (9) mounted in defined relation to the first detector (1), the position of the markers is detectable by the second detector (5,6) for determining the relative position between the first and second detectors.