Catheter Tracking System for Brain Vessel Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Navigating a catheter through the complex and narrow blood vessels in the brain is challenging due to the complexity of vessel routes and the limitations of current tracking technologies, which often rely on fluoroscopy and cannot accurately depict the entire catheter path, risking incorrect routing and prolonged procedure times.
Innovation Solution
A catheter-based tracking system that uses a flexible shaft with a deflectable distal end and a location tracking transducer to output signals indicative of its location, combined with a tracking subsystem and processing circuitry to create a movement log, allowing for real-time rendering of the catheter's path within the brain's blood vessels, adjusting for retraction and defining route boundaries based on vessel walls or a given radius.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If fluoroscopy is used to track catheter location, then real-time imaging is achieved, but radiation exposure increases and the entire catheter path cannot be accurately depicted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces fluoroscopy-based mechanical/optical tracking with a magnetic field-based tracking system. A magnetic sensor at the catheter tip detects magnetic field gradients generated by external coils, enabling radiation-free, real-time catheter position and orientation tracking with full path visualization capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces magnetic field gradients as an intermediary medium between the external tracking system and the catheter sensor. External magnetic coils generate spatially varying magnetic fields that interact with the magnetic sensor on the catheter, enabling indirect but precise position detection without direct line-of-sight or radiation requirements.
2Reliability
If the catheter is navigated through complex blood vessels, then the target area can be reached, but the risk of incorrect routing increases due to limited tracking visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous feedback by constantly monitoring magnetic field gradients at the catheter tip and real-time updating of catheter position and orientation. This closed-loop feedback system provides immediate information about catheter location relative to the target and blood vessel anatomy, enabling corrective steering actions to maintain accurate routing through complex vessels.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a new dimension of information by tracking not only catheter position but also orientation in three-dimensional space using magnetic gradient sensing. This multidimensional tracking capability provides comprehensive spatial awareness that helps navigate complex vessel geometries by showing both where the catheter is and which direction it is pointing.
3Measurement precision
If the entire catheter path is visualized, then navigation accuracy improves, but the processing and rendering complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the catheter into discrete position segments along its length, with each segment's position determined by integrating orientation data from the magnetic sensor. This segmentation approach allows the complex catheter path to be constructed from simpler incremental position calculations, reducing overall processing complexity while maintaining full path visualization accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables accurate and efficient navigation of the catheter by providing a clear representation of its entire path within the brain's blood vessels, reducing the risk of incorrect routing and minimizing exposure to radiation, thus enhancing procedural efficiency and safety.
Implementation Method 1
a location tracking transducer in the distal end, the location tracking transducer being configured to output a signal that is indicative of a location of the transducer in the body-part
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment a medical tracking system, including a catheter to be inserted into blood vessels of a body-part of a living subject, and including a flexible shaft having a deflectable distal end, and a location tracking transducer in the distal end configured to output a signal indicative of a location of the transducer, a tracking subsystem to track locations of the distal end over time responsively to the signal, a display, and processing circuitry to add the tracked locations of the distal end to a movement log, and render to the display an image of at least part of the body-part with a representation of a length of the shaft of the catheter in at least one blood vessel of the body-part, with respective positions along the length of the shaft being located in the image responsively to respective ones of the tracked locations from the movement log.