Vascular reconstruction

• US 6,546,271 B1
• Filed: 10/01/1999
• Issued: 04/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Biosense, Inc. (Cardinal Health, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: US Bioscience
• Inventors: Reisfeld, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Lateef, Marvin M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MANTIS MERCADER, ELENI M
• Application Number:
  US09/411,154
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 600/407, 600/462, 600/463, 600/467, 600/459, 600/443, 600/424, 128/916, 128/899
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/06 Devices, other than using radiation, for detecting or locating foreign bodies for removing same A61B17/50 ; determining position of probes within or on the body of the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/062 using magnetic field

Abstract

A method for vascular reconstruction comprises the steps of advancing a catheter having a position sensor into the vessel, acquiring position information from the sensor at a plurality of points in the vessel, calculating a center-line of the vessel based on said position information, and calculating the inner surface of the vessel. The method of the invention preferably further comprises displaying the vessel reconstruction. The invention is also directed to apparatus for reconstructing vessels which comprises a catheter having a position sensor contained therein, means for acquiring position information from said sensor at a plurality of points in said vessel, means for calculating a centerline of the vessel based on said position information, and means for calculating the inner surface of the vessel.

Claims

1. A method of reconstructing the inner surface of a blood vessel using a catheter having a position sensor contained therein, said sensor generating signals responsive to the position and/or the orientation of the catheter within the body, said method comprising:

a) advancing the catheter into the vessel;

b) acquiring signals from the sensor and calculating position information from said acquired signals at a plurality of acquisition points in the vessel;

c) calculating a centerline of the vessel based on said position information;

d) calculating the inner surface of the vessel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the centerline is described as a parametric function.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the parametric function is of a polynomial form.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the distances between acquisition points and respective points on the centerline closest to said acquisition points are minimized.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said distances are minimized in a least squares sense.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said inner vessel surface is reconstructed in approximately circular cross-section.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said reconstruction comprises calculating slices of the vessel about said centerline.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said slices are perpendicular to said centerline.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said slices perpendicular to said centerline have a fixed cross-section.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein said slices perpendicular to said centerline have a variable cross-section.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the distance from each point on the reconstruction to the centerline is a function of the distances of the acquisition points to the centerline.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the distance from each point on the reconstruction to the centerline is the average distance of the acquisition points to the centerline.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the distance from each point on the reconstruction to the centerline is the median distance of the acquisition points to the centerline.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein said function is a weighted average of the distances of the acquisition points to the centerline.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said weighted average accords greater weight to proximate acquisition points.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein said distance is user selected.

17. The method of claim 1 which further comprises acquiring condition information at said acquisition points.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said reconstruction is color-coded to depict values of said condition information.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein values of condition information on the vessel surface intermediate said acquisition points are interpolated.

20. The method of claim 1 which further comprises the step of displaying the reconstructed vessel surface.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein said position information is obtained by traversing the catheter in the vessel.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein said position information is obtained by sampling points on the vessel wall around the vessel cross-section.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein said position sensor is an electromagnetic sensor.

24. Apparatus for reconstructing the inner surface of a blood vessel comprising:

a) catheter having a position sensor contained therein, said sensor generating signals responsive to the position and/or the orientation of the catheter within the body;

b) means for acquiring signals from said sensor at a plurality of points in said vessel and for calculating position information from said acquired signals;

c) means for calculating a centerline of the vessel based on said position information; and

d) means for calculating the inner surface of the vessel.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 which further comprises means for displaying the reconstruction.

26. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein said sensor is an electromagnetic sensor.