Presentation of a Locally Rendered-Based Multimodality Subset

Abstract

To provide systems, apparatuses and methods for improving intra-body visualization.SOLUTION: Methods, apparatuses and systems for medical procedures are disclosed herein and include receiving a first set of biometric data of a first modality for a first portion of a body part, determining first visual characteristics based on the first set of biometric data, receiving a second set of biometric data of a second modality for a second portion of the body part, the second portion of the body part being a subset of the first portion of the body part, and determining second visual characteristics based on the second set of biometric data. A first view including the first portion of the body part rendered with the first visual characteristics may be provided and a second view comprising the second portion of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristics may be provided, the second view superimposed on the first view at a location on the first view corresponding to the second portion of the body part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application provides a system, apparatus, and method for improving visualization of the interior of the body.

Background Art

[0002] Medical conditions such as cardiac arrhythmias (e.g., atrial fibrillation (AF)) are often diagnosed and treated via an invasive procedure. For example, pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) from the left atrial (LA) body is performed using ablation to treat AF. PVI, and many other minimally invasive catheter procedures, require real-time visualization and mapping of the internal surface.

[0003] Visualization and mapping of internal body parts can be performed by mapping propagation of activation waves, fluoroscopy, computerized tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and other techniques that may require more time or resources than desired to provide visualization and mapping.

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0004] Methods, apparatuses, and systems for medical treatment are disclosed herein, including receiving a first set of biometric data of a first modality regarding a first portion of a body part, determining a first visual characteristic based on the first set of biometric data, receiving a second set of biometric data of a second modality regarding a second portion of the body part, where the second portion of the body part is a subset of the first portion of the body part, and determining a second visual characteristic based on the second set of biometric data. A first view including the first portion of the body part rendered with the first visual characteristic may be provided, a second view including the second portion of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristic may be provided, and the second view is overlaid on the first view at a location on the first view corresponding to the second portion of the body part. The first modality may be local activation time (LAT), electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance. The second modality may be a different one of LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and then may be the first modality. The body part may be a heart chamber. The first portion of the body part may be the whole body part or a subset of the body part.

[0005] A third view including rendering based on the second set of biometric data may be provided.

[0006] The first visual characteristic may be based on a range of values within the first set of biometric data, and the second visual characteristic may be based on a range of values within the second set of biometric data. The first modality or the second modality may be determined based on one of automatic determination or user input. The automatic determination may be based on one of system configuration, previous use, the first biometric data, the second biometric data, patient history, and stored settings.

[0007] A third set of biological data of a third modality regarding a second part of the body part may be determined. The third visual characteristic may be based on the third set of biological data. A second view corresponding to the second part of the body part may be rendered with the third visual characteristic. The second view may include the second part of the body part rendered with the third visual characteristic, and the second view including the second part of the body part may be provided after being rendered with the second visual characteristic instead of the third visual characteristic.

[0008] One or more catheters may be configured to sense a first set of biological data of a first modality regarding a first part of the body part and a second set of biological data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part.

[0009] A display may be provided and may render the first view and the second view.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0010] A more detailed understanding will become possible from the following description given as an example together with the accompanying drawings.

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] According to an embodiment of the subject matter of the present disclosure, a catheter or other insertable device may be inserted into a patient's body and may sense biometric data of a body part within the patient's body. For example, an element such as an electrode on an insertable catheter may sense electrical activity data on the surface of a heart chamber and provide the electrical activity data to a processor. The processor may generate rendering data that enables a display to render the shape of the heart chamber such that the surface of the heart chamber exhibits the electrical activity data, as further disclosed herein.

[0012] According to the embodiments disclosed in this specification, one or more catheters may be used to collect biometric data of body parts of different modalities. The modality may be a category of biometric data, for example, it may include LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance. The rendering of the body part may include biometric data of different modalities shown at different points of the body part. The biometric data may be rendered using visual characteristics (such as color) shown on the surface of the body part via a display (such as a monitor). The biometric data may be visually communicated using any applicable visual characteristics such as color, hue, saturation, pattern, shape, protrusions (such as 3D protrusions), texture, alphanumeric characters, or ranges or gradients. For clarity, the shape of a body part such as the heart may be rendered via a display, and the surface of the shape may have visual characteristics that convey the value of the biometric data (for example, the LAT value, where the first color may represent the lower range of the LAT value and the second color may represent the higher range of the LAT value). The rendering of the body part is adjustable, and the viewing angle, zoom amount, position, orientation, and other view characteristics may be automatically adjusted by the user or according to a predetermined or dynamically determined criterion.

[0013] According to embodiments of the subject matter of the present disclosure, the rendering data may include a global view and a local view. The global view may include biometric data of a first modality regarding a first part of the body part, and this biometric data may be the body part as a whole or the body part of the body part rendered on the display at a given time. The global view may use visual characteristics such as colors indicating different values of the biometric data (for example, the modality may be the LAT value, and a high LAT value may be shown in red, while a low LAT value may be shown in purple) to show the biometric data regarding the first modality on the surface of the first part of the body part.

[0014] The visual characteristics indicating different values of the biological data related to the first modality within the global view may be determined based on the range of values existing within the first modality biological data related to the first part of the body part. If the range of values is wider, it may result in more values being indicated by the same or similar visual characteristics. For example, the first part of the body part may be a cardiac chamber having LAT values in the range of -500 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds. The visual characteristics used to indicate the LAT values within the global view may be, for example, five colors including red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Red may indicate -500 milliseconds to -301 milliseconds, yellow may indicate 300 milliseconds to -101 milliseconds, green may indicate -100 milliseconds to +99 milliseconds, blue may indicate +100 milliseconds to +299 milliseconds, and purple may indicate +300 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds.

[0015] The local view may be superimposed on a part of the global view and may include biological data related to the second modality and related to the second part of the body part included within the first part of the body part shown in the global view (for example, the first part of the body part may be a cardiac chamber, and the second part of the body part may be a small part of the cardiac chamber). The second modality in which the biological data is displayed within the local view may be a modality different from the first modality in which the biological data is displayed within the global view. For example, the global view may show the LAT values of the entire cardiac chamber, while on the other hand, the local view may show the impedance values of a smaller subset of the cardiac chamber.

[0016] The local view may show biometric data of a second modality on the surface of a second part of the body part using visual characteristics such as colors indicating values of biometric data of the second modality (e.g., a high impedance value may be indicated in red, while a low impedance value may be indicated in purple). Visual characteristics indicating different values of the biometric data of the second modality for the local view may be determined based on the range of values present in the biometric data of the second modality for the second part of the body part such that the range of values and the corresponding visual characteristics are specific to a smaller region of the second part of the body part. For example, the local view may show impedance values and may be superimposed on a global view showing LAT values. The global view may show a cardiac chamber having LAT values in the range of -500 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds indicated by color, and a local view superimposed on a portion of the global view over a smaller portion of the cardiac chamber may show impedance values in the range of 2.2 ohms to 3.2 ohms. Thus, the visual characteristics used to indicate the impedance values in the local view may be the same five colors as in the global view including red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, where red may indicate 2.2 ohms to 2.4 ohms, yellow may indicate 2.4 ohms to 2.6 ohms, green may indicate 2.6 ohms to 2.8 ohms, blue may indicate 2.8 ohms to 3 ohms, and purple may indicate 3 ohms to 3.2 ohms. In particular, the local view may provide biometric data of the second modality when compared to a global view providing data from a first modality different from the second modality for a larger or different part of the body part.

[0017] Medical experts can view visual data from two modalities and can confirm more information than when only a single modality is provided. For example, the cardiac chamber may be presented to the physician such that the LAT value is rendered on the surface of the ventricle. The physician may identify a specific region on the cardiac chamber that indicates a potentially problematic feature. According to this example, the LAT value alone may not enable the physician to distinguish sufficient information necessary to confirm whether the specific region indicates a problematic feature. Thus, as disclosed herein, the local view can enable the physician to view biometric data of an additional modality (e.g., bipolar mapping or dominant frequency), thereby enabling the physician to confirm whether a specific region is a problematic region or not a problematic region.

[0018] The disclosure provided herein enumerates components, attributes, data, renderings, etc. as first, second, third, etc. (referred to as "items"), but it will be understood that such designators are provided to distinguish two or more items and are not necessarily provided to order them. As a specific example, the first part of a body part is distinguished from the second part of the body part such that the second part of the body part is not a subset of the first part of the body part. As another example, the first set of biometric data may correspond to the first modality and the first part of the body part. The first set of biometric data is distinguished from the second set of biometric data that may correspond to the second modality of the second part of the body part.

[0019] FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary system 20 capable of embodying one or more exemplary features of the subject matter of the present disclosure. The mapping system 20 may include a device such as a catheter 40 configured to acquire biological data according to an embodiment of the subject matter of the present disclosure. The catheter 40 is shown as being basket-shaped, but it will be understood that catheters of any shape, including one or more elements (such as electrodes), may be used to embody the embodiments disclosed herein. The mapping system 20 includes a probe 21 having a shaft 22 that can be navigated by a medical professional 30 to a body part such as the heart 26 of a patient 28 lying on a table 29. As shown in FIG. 1, the medical professional 30 can insert the shaft 22 through the sheath 23 while operating the distal end of the shaft 22 using a manipulator 32 near the proximal end of the catheter and / or a deflection section from the sheath 23. As shown in the inset FIG. 25, the catheter 40 can be attached to the distal end of the shaft 22. The catheter 40 can be inserted through the sheath 23 in a folded state and then expanded within the heart 26.

[0020] According to one embodiment, the catheter 40 may be configured to acquire biological data of the heart chambers of the heart 26. The inset FIG. 45 shows an enlarged view of the catheter 40 inside the heart chamber of the heart 26. As shown, the catheter 40 may include an array of elements (such as electrodes 48) coupled on a spline forming the shape of the catheter 40. The elements (such as electrodes 48) may be any element configured to acquire biological data, and may be electrodes, transducers, or one or more other elements. Although one catheter 40 is shown, it will be understood that multiple catheters may be used to collect biological data of different modalities.

[0021] According to the embodiments disclosed in this specification, the biological data may include one or more of LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, impedance, etc. The local activation time may be the time point of the threshold activity corresponding to the local activation, calculated based on the normalized initial starting point. The electrical activity may be any applicable electrical signal that can be measured based on one or more thresholds, and may be sensed and / or enhanced based on the signal-to-noise ratio and / or other filters. The topology may correspond to the physical structure of a body part or a part of a body part, and may correspond to changes in the physical structure regarding different parts of the body part or regarding different body parts. The dominant frequency may be a frequency or a range of frequencies that pervades a part of the body part, and may be different in different parts of the same body part. For example, the dominant frequency of the pulmonary vein of the heart may be different from the dominant frequency of the right atrium of the same heart. The impedance may be a resistance measurement value in a given region of the body part, and may be calculated as a stand-alone value based on the frequency and / or in combination with further considerations such as blood concentration.

[0022] As shown in FIG. 1, the probe 21 and the catheter 40 may be connected to the console 24. The console 24 may include a processor 41, such as a general-purpose computer, with a suitable front-end and interface circuit 38 for transmitting signals to the catheter 40, receiving signals from the catheter 40, and controlling other components of the mapping system 20. In some embodiments, the processor 41 may be further configured to receive biological data and generate rendering data for a global view and a local view based on the biological data, as further disclosed herein. According to an embodiment, the rendering data may be used to provide a rendering of one or more body parts on the display 27 to a medical expert 30, such as the body part rendering 35. According to one embodiment, the processor may be external to the console 24 and may be located, for example, within the catheter, within an external device, within a mobile device, within a cloud-based device, or be a stand-alone processor.

[0023] As described above, the processor 41 includes a general-purpose computer, which may be programmed in software to perform the functions described herein. The software may be downloaded in electronic form onto the general-purpose computer, for example, over a network, or alternatively, or additionally, may be provided and / or stored on a non-transitory tangible medium, such as magnetic memory, optical memory, or electronic memory. The exemplary configuration shown in FIG. 1 may be modified to embody the embodiments disclosed herein. The embodiments of the present disclosure can be similarly applied using other system components and settings. Further, the mapping system 20 may include additional components, such as elements for sensing biological patient data, wired or wireless connectors, processing and display devices, and the like.

[0024] According to one embodiment, a display connected to a processor (e.g., processor 41) may be located at a remote location such as a separate hospital or a separate healthcare provider network. Further, the mapping system 20 may be part of a surgical system configured to acquire anatomical and electrical measurements of a patient's organ such as the heart and perform a cardiac ablation procedure. An example of such a surgical system is the Carto® system sold by Biosense Webster.

[0025] The mapping system 20 may also, and optionally, use ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or other medical imaging techniques known in the art to acquire biological data such as anatomical measurements of the patient's heart. The mapping system 20 can acquire electrical measurements using a catheter, an electrocardiogram (EKG), or other sensors that measure electrical properties of the heart. The biological data, including the anatomical and electrical measurements, may then be stored in the local memory 42 of the mapping system 20 as shown in FIG. 1. In particular, the memory 42 may store biological data of multiple different modalities simultaneously. The biological data may be transmitted from the memory 42 to the processor 41. Alternatively, or additionally, the biological data may be transmitted to a server 60, which may be local or remote, using the network 62.

[0026] Network 62 can be any network or system generally known in the art, such as an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a direct connection or a series of connections, a cellular phone network, or any other network or medium capable of facilitating communication between mapping system 20 and server 60. Network 62 can be wired, wireless, or a combination thereof. The wired connection can be implemented using Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), RJ-11, or any other wired connection generally known in the art. The wireless connection can be implemented using Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and Bluetooth, infrared, cellular network, satellite, or any other wireless connection method generally known in the art. Further, some networks can operate alone or communicate with each other to facilitate communication within network 62.

[0027] In some cases, server 60 may be implemented as a physical server. In other cases, server 60 may be implemented as a virtual server with a public cloud computing provider (e.g., Amazon Web Services (AWS) (registered trademark)).

[0028] The control console 24 can be connected to the body surface electrode 43 by a cable 39, and the body surface electrode can include an adhesive skin patch attached to the patient 28. A processor in conjunction with the current tracking module can determine the position coordinates of the catheter 40 inside the patient's body part (e.g., the heart 26). The position coordinates may be based on the impedance or electromagnetic field measured between the electrode 43 and the electrode 48 or other electromagnetic components of the catheter 40.

[0029] Processor 41 may typically include a real-time noise reduction circuit configured as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), followed by an analog-to-digital (A / D) electrocardiograph (ECG) or electromyogram (EMG) signal conversion integrated circuit. Processor 41 may pass signals from the A / D ECG or EMG circuit to another processor and / or may be programmed to perform one or more of the functions disclosed herein.

[0030] The control console 24 may also include an input / output (I / O) communication interface, which enables the control console to transmit signals to and / or receive signals from the electrodes 48 and 43. Based on signals received from the electrode 48 and / or the electrode 43, the processor 41 can generate rendering data that enables a display, such as the display 27, to render a body part, such as the body part rendering 35, and biometric data of a plurality of modalities as part of the body part rendering 35.

[0031] During the procedure, the processor 41 facilitates the presentation of the body part rendering 35 to the medical expert 30 on the display 27, including a global view having a first modality and a local view having a second modality, and can store data representing the body part rendering 35 in the memory 42. The memory 42 may comprise any suitable volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory, such as a random access memory or a hard disk drive. In some embodiments, the medical expert 30 may be able to manipulate the body part rendering 35 using one or more input devices such as a touch pad, a mouse, a keyboard, a gesture recognition device, etc. In alternative embodiments, the display 27 may include a touch screen configured to receive input from the medical expert 30 in addition to presenting the body part rendering 35 including the global view and the local view.

[0032] FIG. 2 shows a process 200 for displaying a global view having a first modality and a local view having a second modality, as disclosed herein. In step 210 of process 200, a first set of biometric data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part can be received. The body part can be any body part or part of a body part within a patient's body, such as an organ, muscle, tissue, ligament, etc. For example, the body part can be the heart, and the first part of the body part can be a ventricle within the heart or a part of a ventricle within the heart. The first set of biometric data of the first modality can be sensed by a catheter such as catheter 40 of FIG. 1. The catheter may include one or more elements such as electrodes or transducers that can be configured to sense the first set of biometric data. The catheter may be inserted into the patient's body through a natural opening created at a location on the patient's body or through an incision. The catheter may traverse the surface of the body part (e.g., the heart), and when the catheter is placed at various points on the surface of the body part, a first set of biometric data may be collected over a time interval. As an example, the catheter may be placed on 500 different points on the surface of the heart, and LAT values may be collected at 2.5 - second intervals, during which the catheter is placed on each of the 500 different points on the surface of the heart. The first set of biometric data may be stored in a memory such as memory 42 of FIG. 1.

[0033] The first set of biometric data of the first modality may be received by a processor such as processor 41 of FIG. 1. The first set of biometric data of the first modality may be received by the processor via a wired or wireless connection between a catheter such as catheter 40 of FIG. 1 and the processor such as processor 41. The first set of biometric data of the first modality may be received by the processor when each data point is sensed by the catheter, or the catheter may sense the entire first set of biometric data and provide it to the processor when the entire set is sensed.

[0034] A first range of values regarding a first set of biometric data of a first modality can be determined. The first range of values may be determined by a processor such as processor 41 in FIG. 1. The first range of values may be determined based on the maximum and minimum biometric data values within the first set of biometric data. For example, if the first set of biometric data includes LAT values as the first modality, for example, if the LAT values range from a minimum LAT value of -500 milliseconds to a maximum LAT value of +500 milliseconds, the first range may be -500 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds. The first range of values may be a set of filtered values, and the filter may be, for example, a high-pass filter, a low-pass filter, an averaging filter, a filter that removes outliers, etc. For example, the filter may be applied such that 5% of the lowest values within the first set of biometric data and 5% of the highest values within the first set of biometric data are removed from the first set of biometric data. The first range of values may be stored in a memory such as memory 42 in FIG. 1.

[0035] In step 220 of the process shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to determine a first visual characteristic corresponding to a value within a first set of biometric data of a first modality. The determination may be based on a first range of values. The first visual characteristic may be any visual characteristic that visually conveys different values in the first set of biometric data of the first modality, and may be one or more of color, hue, saturation, pattern, shape, protrusion, texture, or alphanumeric characters. For example, the visual characteristic may be different colors corresponding to respective different ranges of LAT values. The values within the first set of biometric data may be segmented, and visual characteristics different from the first visual characteristic may be assigned to each segment. The number of values represented by each visual characteristic may be determined based on how wide or narrow the first range of values is. If the range of values is wide, it may result in segments containing a larger number of values in each segment, and if the range of values is narrow, it may result in segments containing a smaller number of values in each segment. As described in the examples described herein, when the values within the first set of biometric data are from -500 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds, the visual characteristics used to indicate the LAT values may be, for example, five colors including red, yellow, green, blue, where red may indicate a segment from -500 milliseconds to -301 milliseconds, yellow may indicate a segment from -300 milliseconds to -101 milliseconds, green may indicate a segment from -100 milliseconds to +99 milliseconds, blue may indicate a segment from +100 milliseconds to +299 milliseconds, and purple may indicate a segment from +300 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds.

[0036] In particular, the first visual characteristic (e.g., the whole body part or a part of the body part) regarding the first set of biometric data of the first modality corresponding to the first part of the body part may be used to display a global view of the body part, and as further described herein, a local view of a smaller subset of the body part (i.e., the second part of the body part) is superimposed on the global view, providing biometric data regarding a modality different from the global view.

[0037] A second portion of the body part can be determined. The second portion of the body part may be a subset of the first portion of the body part such that the second portion of the body part corresponds to a region within the first portion of the body part. The second portion of the body part may be determined based on user input as shown in FIG. 5A, as further described herein. Alternatively, the second portion of the body part may be determined based on the position of a catheter, such as a catheter used to sense a first set of biometric data in step 210 of the process shown in FIG. 2, as shown in FIG. 5B, as further described herein.

[0038] In step 230 of the process shown in FIG. 2, a second set of biometric data of a second modality regarding the second portion of the body part can be received. The second portion of the body part may be a subset of the first portion of the body part such that the second portion of the body part is a smaller portion of the first portion of the body part. The second set of biometric data of the second modality may include biometric data values sensed by a different catheter that sensed the first biometric data, or by the same catheter that sensed the first biometric data (e.g., by different electrodes based on different electrode configurations). The catheter for sensing the second biometric data of the second modality may be similar or the same as catheter 40 in FIG. 1, and the second biometric data of the second modality may be stored in a memory such as memory 42.

[0039] A second range of values within the second set of biometric data may be determined. The second range of values may be determined by a processor such as processor 41 in FIG. 1. The second range of values may be determined based on the maximum and minimum biometric data values within the second set of biometric data of the second modality. For example, if the second set of biometric data includes impedance values in the range from a minimum impedance value of 22 ohms to a maximum impedance value of 32 ohms, the range may be 22 ohms to 32 ohms. The second range of values may be a set of filtered values, as described herein regarding the present disclosure related to the first range of values.

[0040] The second modality corresponding to the second set of biometric data may be determined based on the system configuration by user input, system resources, predetermined criteria, dynamically determined criteria, patient history, and the like. For example, the second modality may be determined based on previous user selections of the modality. Alternatively, for example, the second modality may be determined based on a random selection of available second modalities, and the second modality may be changed based on user input or identification of the problem area, as further disclosed herein.

[0041] In step 240 of the process shown in FIG. 2, the second visual characteristic corresponding to the value within the second set of biometric data of the second modality may be determined based on the second range of values. The second visual characteristic may be any visual characteristic that visually conveys different values in the second set of biometric data of the second modality, and may be one or more of color, hue, saturation, pattern, shape, protrusion, texture, or alphanumeric characters. The second visual characteristic may be the same as, or a subset of, the visual characteristic determined based on the first range of values for the first subset of biometric data of the first modality. As an example of the second visual characteristic, the second visual characteristic may be different colors corresponding to respective ranges of impedance values. The values within the second set of biometric data of the second modality may be segmented, and visual characteristics different from the second visual characteristic may be assigned to each segment. The number of values represented by each visual characteristic may be determined based on how wide or narrow the second range of values is. As described in the examples provided herein, when the values within the second set of biometric data of the second impedance-based modality are in the range of 22 ohms to 32 ohms, the second visual characteristic used to indicate the impedance value may be the same five colors as the first visual characteristic including red, yellow, green, blue, and purple, where red may indicate the segment of 22 ohms to 24 ohms, yellow may indicate 24 ohms to 26 ohms, green may indicate 26 ohms to 28 ohms, blue may indicate 28 ohms to 30 ohms, and purple may indicate 30 ohms to 32 ohms.

[0042] In particular, the visual characteristics regarding a second set of biometric data of a second modality corresponding to a second part of the body part (i.e., a subset of the first part of the body part) may be used to display different categories of data specific to the second part of the body part when compared to a global view that includes the first biometric data corresponding to the first modality of the larger first part of the body part, as further described herein.

[0043] In step 250 of the process shown in FIG. 2, a global view having a first visual characteristic regarding a first modality may be displayed. The global view may include a rendering of the first part of the body part such that the surface of the first part of the body part is rendered using the first visual characteristic specific to the first modality. Thus, the global view can show the first part of the body part having the first visual characteristic that visually indicates the values of the first set of biometric data of the first modality via the first visual characteristic. FIG. 3 is an image 300 of a display showing a global view 310 of a first part of a heart chamber. As shown in FIG. 3, the global view 310 is a rendering of the first part of the heart chamber, and the surface of the rendering of the first part of the heart chamber is represented by visual characteristics of light gray to dark gray corresponding to the LAT-based modality. The light gray portion of the surface corresponds to lower LAT values, as shown in the legend 330, and the dark gray portion of the surface corresponds to higher LAT values, also as shown in the legend 330.

[0044] FIG. 3 also shows a reference orientation 340 indicating the orientation of the heart chamber currently being displayed via the global view 310. The orientation of the global view 310 can be changed, and the reference orientation 340 can be adjusted based on the change. For example, the user can provide input by pressing a mouse button and moving the mouse to rotate the global view 310 so that different regions of the heart chamber are displayed. According to this example, the reference orientation 340 can change to reflect the change in the orientation of the displayed heart chamber.

[0045] In step 260 of the process shown in FIG. 2, a local view having a second visual characteristic of the second modality may be displayed. The local view may be superimposed on the global view and may include rendering of a second portion of the body part such that the surface of the second portion of the body part is rendered using the second visual characteristic of the second modality. The second portion of the body part may be a subset of the first portion of the body part, as disclosed herein. Thus, the local view can show a second, smaller portion of the body part having visual characteristics indicative of the values of a second set of biometric data of the second modality. FIG. 3 shows a local view 320 of a second portion of a heart chamber superimposed on a global view. As shown in FIG. 3, the local view 320 includes a rendering of the second portion of the heart chamber, and the surface of the rendering of the second portion of the heart chamber is represented by a range of visual characteristics from light gray to dark gray corresponding to changes in impedance values in the second portion of the body part. Similarly, the dark gray portions of the surfaces within the local view 320 correspond to higher impedance values within the smaller region occupied by the second portion of the heart chamber. In particular, the local view 320 of the second, smaller portion of the heart chamber includes visual characteristics corresponding to a category of biometric data (i.e., a different modality) that is different from the visual characteristics of the first, larger portion of the heart chamber. The legend 321 shows a range of colors corresponding to the range of impedance values and is based on the local view 320.

[0046] Data of the global view, such as the global view 310 in FIG. 3, and the local view, such as the local view 320, may be generated by a processor such as the processor 41 in FIG. 1 and provided to a display such as the display 27. The processor may update the global view and / or the local view based on an updated first set of biometric data regarding the first modality or a second set of biometric data regarding the second modality, and the global view and the local view rendered on the display may be updated accordingly. The values of the updated first set of biometric data regarding the first modality or the second set of biometric data regarding the second modality may be provided based on additional biometric data sensed by a catheter such as the catheter 40.

[0047] FIG. 4A shows a simplified diagram of the global view 410 and the local view 420 according to the embodiments disclosed herein. As shown in FIG. 4A, the global view 410 includes a rendering of a first portion of a body part using a first visual characteristic that includes a gray gradient ranging from light gray to dark gray. The first visual characteristic of the global view 410 corresponds to a range of LAT values in the range of -500 milliseconds to +500 milliseconds, as shown in the global view legend 411. In particular, the global view 410 of the larger first portion of the body part is rendered using the first visual characteristic corresponding to the modality based on the LAT value when compared to the local view 420 rendered using the visual characteristic corresponding to the modality based on the impedance value. The local view 420 corresponding to the smaller second portion of the body part, which is a subset of the first portion of the body part, includes a rendering of the smaller second portion of the body part using a second visual characteristic that includes a gray gradient ranging from light gray to dark gray. The second visual characteristic of the local view 420 corresponds to an impedance value in the range of 22 ohms to 32 ohms, as shown in the local view legend 421. As shown in the local view 420, the dark gray visual feature 423 and the light gray visual characteristic 422 correspond to differences in the granularity of the bio-data based on the impedance (i.e., the second modality) within the area occupied by the second portion of the body part.

[0048] According to embodiments of the subject matter of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 4B, different local views 430 may be shown superimposed on the same global view 410 as shown in FIG. 4A. The local view 430 may correspond to a smaller body part that is a subset of the first body part corresponding to the global view 410. The local view 430 may be rendered in response to receiving a selection of a smaller body part corresponding to the location of the local view 430. The selection of the smaller body part may be provided by the user, as shown in FIG. 5A, as further disclosed herein. Alternatively, the local view 430 may be shown in FIG. 5B and may be rendered in response to the movement of a catheter to an area corresponding to the location of the local view 430, as further disclosed herein.

[0049] The local view 430 of FIG. 4B may include visual characteristics determined based on a second modality range of biometric data values specific to a second portion of the body part associated with the region of the global view 430, which is different from the modality shown in the global view 410 (i.e., the LAT value). The modality for the local view 430 may be different from or the same as the modality for the local view 420 of FIG. 4A.

[0050] According to embodiments of the subject matter of the present disclosure, as shown in FIG. 4C, two or more local views, such as local view 420 and local view 430, may be displayed simultaneously. The number of local views to be displayed simultaneously may be determined by system configuration, depending on user input, system resources, predetermined criteria, dynamically determined criteria, and the like. As shown in FIG. 4C, local views 420 and 430 can be simultaneously superimposed on the global view 410. The modality of local view 420 may be the same as the modality regarding local view 430 (not shown). Alternatively, as shown in the figure, the modality regarding local view 420 may be different from the modality regarding local view 430. As indicated by local view legend 421, the modality regarding local view 420 may be impedance, and the modality regarding local view 430 may be dominant frequency. The value of the impedance value shown in local view 420 may be in the range of 22 ohms to 32 ohms, and the value of the dominant frequency value shown in local view 430 may be in the range of 1 Hz to 500 Hz.

[0051] FIG. 5A shows a simplified view of a user selection 520 of a second portion of a body part. As shown in FIG. 5A, a global view 510 may be rendered and biometric data information may be communicated using visual characteristics determined based on a range of values of biometric data of a first modality associated with a first portion of the body part, as indicated via a global view legend 511. A user may provide an input for selection of a second, smaller portion of the body part that is a subset of the first portion of the body part corresponding to the global view 510. The user input may be provided by any applicable means, such as a physical input device (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, touch screen, stylus, etc.), a voice command, a gesture, etc. FIG. 5A shows an example of a circular user selection that may be provided by the user pressing a mouse button and dragging the mouse down towards the position of a cursor 525 shown in FIG. 5A as the cursor 525 moves towards a vertex portion of a circular portion that constitutes the user selection 520. The user may release the mouse button, and the user selection 520 may be processed as an input for determining a second body part corresponding to the user selection 520. To determine a second range of values of a second modality in a second set of biometric data corresponding to the second portion of the body part based on the user selection 520, the second body part corresponding to the user selection 520 may be applied in step 230 of the process disclosed in FIG. 2. The range of biometric data corresponding to the second portion of the body part may be shown in a local view legend 528 and may vary based on the region selected by the user and a given modality with respect to the region selected by the user.

[0052] Figure 5B shows a simplified diagram of the determination of the second part of the body part based on the position of the catheter 535. As shown in Figure 5B, a global view 510 may be rendered, and the biological data information of the first modality can be transmitted using the visual characteristics determined based on the range of values of the biological data associated with the first part of the body part and the range shown in the global view legend 511. The position of the catheter 535 can be determined based on a visual cue that facilitates communication with the position tracking pad or electrode 39 in Figure 1, or based on electromagnetic transmission. The position of the catheter 535 can result in the determination of the second part of the body part corresponding to the selected region 530. In step 230 of the process disclosed in Figure 2, the second part of the body part corresponding to the selected region 530 can be applied to determine the second range of values of the second modality in the second set of biological data corresponding to the second body part. In particular, the location of the selected region 530 can change based on the movement of the catheter 535. The range of the biological data of the second modality corresponding to the second part of the body part may be shown in the local view legend 538, which can change based on the position of the catheter 535.

[0053] According to one embodiment of the subject matter of the present disclosure, the local region may enable the identification of problem regions such as scars, dead tissue, overly active tissue, electrical signal rotors, etc. FIG. 6 may be rendered and uses visual characteristics determined based on the range of values of the biometric data of the first modality associated with the first portion of the body part, as shown via the global view 611, to communicate biometric data information. A global view 610 is shown. A local view 620 may be superimposed on the global view 610, and the local view 620 may correspond to a second portion of the body part where the biometric data of the second state indicates problem conditions. The modality for the local view 620 may be determined based on the type of problem condition such that the modality can be selected to most prominently show the problem region. For example, the global view 610 may show LAT values, and problem regions with large variations in impedance may be identified. Thus, the second modality shown via the local view 620 may be impedance such that the large variation in impedance is shown superimposed on the LAT values shown in the global view 610. Such a second portion of the body part may be identified based on the analysis of one or more modalities of the biometric data corresponding to the entire first portion of the body part. The analysis may include evaluating changes in the biometric data over a region such as the surface region of the heart. Alternatively or additionally, the analysis may include applying a predetermined filter or machine learning algorithm to the biometric data of multiple modalities regarding the first portion of the body part corresponding to the global view 610.

[0054] The second portion of the body part corresponding to the local view 620 may be automatically identified based on the analysis of the biometric data of one or more modalities corresponding to the entire first portion of the body part. Based on the automatic identification, the local view 620 with the corresponding modality can be selected. The analysis may be performed based on a stored algorithm (e.g., in the memory 42 of FIG. 1) generated based on the previous or known identification of the problem region.

[0055] As described above, the problem area may be one or more scars, dead tissue, overly active tissue, an electrical signal rotor, etc. As an example, a scar may be identified by abnormal bipolar mapping values within a given area of a body part. The abnormal bipolar mapping values can be, for example, a sharp change in impedance values such as between impedance values 623 and 622 corresponding to local view legend 621. A scar may not be visible when only viewing the LAT values shown via the global view 610. However, a system such as the mapping system 20 of FIG. 1 can sense biometric data regarding multiple modalities and can identify both the problem area and the modality that is closest to the problem area and identifies the problem area based on the biometric data sensed regarding the multiple modalities.

[0056] Another problem area may be the live tissue area between scars. Such an area may be identified based on biometric data including bipolar amplitude. The bipolar amplitude regarding the entire first part of the body part can span a wide range so that the live tissue area between scars may not be visible on the global view. Similarly, another problem area may be a rotor signal such as an electrical signal in a part of the ventricle showing a circular pattern. Rotor signals often indicate the source of AFib. The biometric data of the first part of the body part may include electrical activity that can be analyzed to detect the rotor signal. The electrical activity of the entire first part of the body part can span a wide range so that the rotor signal may not be visible on the global view.

[0057] Local views, such as local view 620 of FIG. 6, may be provided on top of the global view 610 and may correspond to regions of a first portion of a body part that shows living tissue within the scar tissue. The local view can correspond to a second, smaller portion of the body part and may be a subset of the entire first portion of the body part rendered within the global view 610. The local view 620 may be rendered and can convey biological data (e.g., bipolar data for identifying living tissue within a scar or a rotor signal based on electrical activity data) with respect to a modality that most clearly and visually displays the presence of the problem region.

[0058] According to embodiments of the subject matter of this disclosure, a third view may be provided external to the global view and may show details of biological data corresponding to a second modality displayed via the local view. FIG. 7 shows an exemplary third view 750 that shows impedance values at various points within local view 720 based on the visual characteristics of local view 720. As shown, the visual characteristics with respect to the global view 710 correspond to LAT values that correspond to the global view legend 711, and the visual characteristics with respect to the local view 720 correspond to impedance values that correspond to the local view legend 721. Further, the third view 750 includes values in the range of 22 ohms to 32 ohms, which corresponds to the range of the local view legend 721.

[0059] All of the functions and methods described herein can be implemented on a general-purpose computer, processor, or processor core. Suitable processors include, by way of example, general-purpose processors, dedicated processors, conventional processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, controllers, microcontrollers, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate array (FPGA) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), and / or state machines. Such processors can be manufactured by configuring a manufacturing process using the results of processed hardware description language (HDL) instructions and other intermediate data such as netlists, which can be stored on a computer-readable medium. The result of such processing can be a mask work, which can then be used in a semiconductor manufacturing process to manufacture a processor that implements the features of the present disclosure.

[0060] All of the functions and methods described herein can be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed by a general-purpose computer or processor. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable storage media include read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), registers, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks and digital versatile disks (DVDs).

[0061] It should be understood that many variations are possible based on the disclosure of this specification. Although features and elements have been described above in specific combinations, each feature or element may be used alone without using other features and elements, or in various combinations with other features and elements with or without using other features and elements.

[0062] 〔Embodiment〕 (1) A method comprising: receiving a first set of biometric data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part; determining a first visual characteristic based on the first set of biometric data; receiving a second set of biometric data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, wherein the second part of the body part is a subset of the first part of the body part; determining a second visual characteristic based on the second set of biometric data; providing, for display, a first view including the first part of the body part rendered with the first visual characteristic; providing, for display, a second view including the second part of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristic, wherein the second view is overlaid on the first view at a location on the first view corresponding to the second part of the body part. (2) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the first modality is one of local activation time (LAT), electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and the second modality is a different one of LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and then the first modality. (3) The method according to embodiment 1, further comprising providing a third view including a rendering based on the second set of biometric data for display. (4) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the body part includes a heart chamber. (5) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the first visual characteristic is based on a range of values within the first set of the biological data, and the second visual characteristic is based on a range of values within the second set of the biological data.

[0063] (6) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the first modality or the second modality is determined based on one of automatic determination or user input. (7) The method according to embodiment 6, wherein the automatic determination is based on one of system configuration, previous use, the first biological data, the second biological data, patient history, and stored settings. (8) Receiving a third set of biological data of a third modality regarding the second part of the body part; Determining a third visual characteristic based on the third set of the biological data; Further comprising providing a third view including the second part of the body part rendered with the third visual characteristic for display, the method according to embodiment 1. (9) After the second view including the second part of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristic is provided, the third view including the second part of the body part rendered with the third visual characteristic is provided, the method according to embodiment 8. (10) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the first part of the body part is one of the whole body part or a subset of the body part.

[0064] (11) A system, One or more catheters configured to sense a first set of biological data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part and a second set of biological data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, wherein the second part of the body part is a subset of the first part of the body part, one or more catheters; A processor, Determining a first visual characteristic based on the first set of the biological data; Determining a second visual characteristic based on the second set of the biological data, a processor configured to perform the above; A display, Displaying a first view including the first portion of the body part rendered with the first visual characteristic; Displaying a second view including the second portion of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristic, the second view being superimposed on the first view at a location on the first view corresponding to the second portion of the body part, a display configured to perform the above, a system comprising. (12) The system according to embodiment 11, wherein the first modality is one of local activation time (LAT), electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, the second modality is a different one of LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and then the first modality. (13) The system according to embodiment 11, wherein the first visual characteristic and the second visual characteristic are one or more of color, hue, saturation, pattern, protrusion, texture, and alphanumeric characters. (14) The system according to embodiment 11, wherein the one or more catheters are configured to sense the first biological data and the second biological data from within a patient's body. (15) The system according to embodiment 11, wherein the first portion of the body part is one of the entire body part and a subset of the body part.

[0065] (16) The system according to embodiment 11, further comprising an input device configured to receive an indication of the second body part. The system according to embodiment 11, wherein the display is located remotely from the processor and is configured to communicate with the processor via a network. (18) A processor, receiving a first set of biometric data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part; receiving a second set of biometric data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, the second part of the body part being a subset of the first part of the body part; providing a first view including the first part of the body part rendered with a first visual characteristic for display; providing a second view including the second part of the body part rendered with a second visual characteristic for display, the second view being overlaid on the first view at a location on the first view corresponding to the second part of the body part, the processor being configured to perform the above.

Claims

1. A method of operating a system comprising a catheter, a processor, and a display, comprising: the processor receiving a first set of biological data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part from the catheter; the processor determining a first visual characteristic based on the first set of biological data; the processor receiving a second set of biological data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, wherein the second part of the body part is a problem area in the first part of the body part identified based on the biological data corresponding to the entire first part of the body part, and the second modality is the modality used for identifying the problem area; the processor determining a second visual characteristic based on the second set of biological data; the processor providing to the display a first view including the first part of the body part rendered at a first scale in the first visual characteristic; the processor providing to the display a second view including the second part of the body part rendered at a second scale in the second visual characteristic; the processor providing to the display an image in which the second view is superimposed on the first view at a location corresponding to the problem area on the first view, a legend corresponding to the first scale, and a legend corresponding to the second scale.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first modality is one of local activation time (LAT), electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and the second modality is one different from the first modality among LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the processor providing, on the display, a third view including a rendering based on the second set of the biological data.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the body part includes a heart chamber.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first visual characteristic is based on a range of values within the first set of the biological data, and the second visual characteristic is based on a range of values within the second set of the biological data.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the processor determines the first modality or the second modality based on one of automatic determination or user input.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the automatic determination is based on one of system configuration, previous use, biological data of the first modality, biological data of the second modality, patient history, and stored settings.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the processor receiving a third set of biological data of a third modality regarding the second part of the body part, the processor determining a third visual characteristic based on the third set of the biological data, and the processor providing, on the display, a third view including the second part of the body part rendered with the third visual characteristic.

9. After the second view including the second part of the body part rendered with the second visual characteristic is provided, the method according to claim 8, wherein the processor provides, on the display, a third view including the second part of the body part rendered with the third visual characteristic.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first part of the body part is one of the whole body part or a subset of the body part. **Claim 11** A system comprising: One or more catheters configured to sense a first set of biometric data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part and a second set of biometric data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, wherein the second part of the body part is a problem area in the body part identified based on biometric data corresponding to the whole of the first part of the body part, and the second modality is the modality used for identifying the problem area, one or more catheters; A processor configured to: Determine a first visual characteristic based on the first set of biometric data; Determine a second visual characteristic based on the second set of biometric data, a processor; A display configured to: Display a first view including the first part of the body part rendered at a first scale in the first visual characteristic; Display a second view including the second part of the body part rendered at a second scale in the second visual characteristic, the second view being an image superimposed on the first view at a location corresponding to the problem area on the first view, a legend corresponding to the first scale, and a legend corresponding to the second scale, a display. **Claim 12** The system according to claim 11, wherein the first modality is one of local activation time (LAT), electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance, and the second modality is one different from the first modality among LAT, electrical activity, topology, bipolar mapping, dominant frequency, or impedance.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first visual characteristic and the second visual characteristic are one or more of color, hue, saturation, pattern, protrusion, texture, and alphanumeric characters.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the one or more catheters are configured to sense the biological data of the first modality and the biological data of the second modality from within the patient's body.

15. The system according to claim 11, wherein the first part of the body part is one of the whole body part and a subset of the body part.

16. The system according to claim 11, further comprising an input device configured to receive an indication of a second part of the body part.

17. The system according to claim 11, wherein the display is located remotely from the processor and is configured to communicate with the processor via a network.

18. A processor, receiving a first set of biological data of a first modality regarding a first part of a body part; receiving a second set of biological data of a second modality regarding a second part of the body part, wherein the second part of the body part is a problem area in the first part of the body part identified based on the biological data corresponding to the whole first part of the body part, and the second modality is the modality used for identifying the problem area; generating a first view including the first part of the body part rendered at a first scale in a first visual characteristic; Generating a second view including the second portion of the body part rendered at a second scale in the second visual characteristic, and generating an image obtained by superimposing the second view on the first view at a location corresponding to the problem area on the first view, a legend corresponding to the first scale, and a legend corresponding to the second scale, and being configured to perform the generating.

Images