Angiography C-Arm Angulation for Stent Visualization
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Solution Overview
Problem
In angiography systems, navigating guidewires through stent grafts in abdominal aortic aneurysms is challenging due to misalignment of openings, often requiring trial and error for optimal angulation, which can obscure important vascular branches in x-ray images.
Innovation Solution
An angiography system that records a 3D dataset of the patient, calculates the optimal angulation of the C-arm to avoid overlapping details, and automatically sets this angulation to provide a clearer view of stent openings by determining the main axis and fixed points, ensuring the projection is perpendicular to both the connecting axis and the main axis of the stent.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual trial and error method is used to adjust C-arm angulation, then the operator can find a viewing angle, but important vascular branches are obscured and navigation becomes time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores the optimal C-arm angulation values based on the 3D dataset and stent geometry before the actual procedure. This preliminary computation of projection angles eliminates the need for time-consuming manual trial and error adjustments during the navigation process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical adjustment of C-arm angulation with an automated computer-controlled system. The control unit automatically positions the C-arm at the calculated optimal angles, substituting manual mechanical operations with automated computational control based on 3D imaging data.
2Ease of operation
If arbitrary angulation is used for C-arm positioning, then the system is simple to operate, but overlapping details obscure important structures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual C-arm positioning with automated computer-controlled positioning. The control unit receives 3D dataset information, calculates the optimal projection angles to prevent overlapping, and automatically adjusts the C-arm to these precise angles, eliminating the need for operator judgment while preventing information loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the angular parameters of the C-arm positioning based on calculations from the 3D dataset. By dynamically adjusting the projection angles according to the specific stent geometry and patient anatomy, the system optimizes the visualization parameters to prevent overlapping of vascular structures while maintaining ease of operation through automation.
3Measurement precision
If multiple angulation adjustments are performed manually, then better views can be obtained, but the procedure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs all necessary angulation calculations in advance based on the 3D dataset and stent geometry. The optimal projection angles are determined before the procedure begins, eliminating the need for multiple sequential adjustments and reducing procedural complexity while maintaining precise visualization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex manual navigation procedures with automated computer-controlled positioning. The control unit automatically executes the pre-calculated angulation adjustments, reducing the procedural steps from multiple manual trial-and-error adjustments to a single automated positioning operation.
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
This approach simplifies the visualization of stent details by automatically selecting an angulation that minimizes overlap, improving navigation and reducing the complexity of aligning guidewires through stent openings, thus enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of stent graft placement.
Implementation Method 1
an x-ray emitter 3 with x-ray tube and collimator
Implementation Method 2
an x-ray image detector 4 as an image recording unit
Data Source
AI summary
An angiography system for angiographic examination or treatment of an organ, vascular system or other regions of an object of a patient is proposed. The system has an x-ray source and an x-ray image detector disposed at ends of a C-arm, a patient support table, a system control unit, an image system, and a monitor. The object contains two details hiding each other in the x-ray images depending on angulation of the C-arm. The system control unit has a device that detects a 3D dataset of the object registered to the C-arm and detects the information about a course of the object. The device calculates a desired and/or optimum angulation of the C-arm from the detected information and transfers the calculated angulation to the system control unit for adjusting the C-arm to the angulation.