Radiation treatment planning and delivery for moving targets in the heart

Abstract

Method and systems are disclosed for radiating a moving target inside a heart. The method includes acquiring sequential volumetric representations of an area of the heart and defining a target tissue region and / or a radiation sensitive structure region in 3D for a first of the representations. The target tissue region and / or radiation sensitive structure region are identified for another of the representations by an analysis of the area of the heart from the first representation and the other representation. Radiation beams to the target tissue region are fired in response to the identified target tissue region and / or radiation sensitive structure region from the other representation.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 918,540, filed on Mar. 16, 2007, and entitled “Radiation Treatment Planning And Delivery For Moving Targets In The Heart”, the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.[0002]This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 971,399, filed on Jan. 9, 2008, entitled “Depositing Radiation In Heart Muscle Under Ultrasound Guidance”; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 971,725, filed on Jan. 9, 2008, entitled “Method for Depositing Radiation in Heart Muscle”; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 975,373, filed on Sep. 26, 2007, entitled “Radiosurgical Ablation of the Myocardium”, the full disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]The present invention generally provides improved methods, devices, and systems for treatment of tissue, in many cases by directing ra...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides improved medical devices, systems, and methods for radiation treatment planning and delivery for moving tissues in a heart. The invention allows for improved radiosurgical treatment of tissues of the heart to mitigate arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. The methods and systems involve acquiring sequential volumetric representations of an area of the heart and identifying the target tissue region and / or a radiation sensitive structure region in 3D for a first representation. The target tissue region is then identified in another representation, and radiation beams are fired to the target to obtain the simulated dose distribution transmurally through the wall of the heart. The invention also provides different types of modeling for the methods and systems, including volume rendering, maximum intensity projection, minimum intensity projection, X-ray projection, haptic feedback, virtual fly-through, stereoscopic 3D rendering, virtual reality, and multi-planar, oblique and curved reconstruction. The contours of the target tissue region and / or a radiation sensitive structure region may be outlined in 3D, and an electrogram may be registered to the CT volumes. The invention ensures transmurality of the target, which is a wall of a heart."

Problems solved by technology

During atrial fibrillation, the blood is not able to empty efficiently from the atria into the ventricles with each heart beat.

While well suited for treatment of lung tissues and the like, existing systems used to verify target registration may also limit radiation exposure of collateral tissues and / or avoid delays in the procedure by limiting the rate at which x-ray images are acquired during treatment.

As several radiation-sensitive structures are in and / or near the heart, and as the treatment time for a single heart patient may be as long as 30 minutes or more, increasing the imaging rate and / or delaying the radiation beams when the target tissue is not sufficiently aligned may be undesirable in many cases.

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