Cardiac-Frequency Angiography for Low-Dose Vascular Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional angiography methods require high doses of contrast agents and x-ray radiation, leading to increased toxicity and risk, while resulting in unsatisfactory signal-to-noise ratios and incomplete imaging of vascular anatomy.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing spatiotemporal reconstruction techniques, such as wavelet transforms, to process angiographic data and generate a cardiac space angiogram, allowing for reduced doses of contrast agents and x-ray radiation by exploiting cardiac frequency coherence between arterial and venous subsystems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high doses of contrast agent are used to improve signal to noise ratio, then image quality is improved, but toxicity to kidneys and other organs increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing spatiotemporal reconstruction and cardiac frequency extraction on angiographic data before final image generation. This preprocessing enhances the signal to noise ratio in advance, allowing subsequent use of lower contrast doses while maintaining diagnostic image quality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing step that acts as a mediator between the raw angiographic data and the final diagnostic image. The spatiotemporal reconstruction algorithm serves as this intermediary, extracting cardiac frequency components and enhancing vascular signals while suppressing noise, thereby reducing the need for high contrast doses
2Measurement precision
If high x-ray dosage is used to improve signal to noise ratio, then image quality is improved, but radiation risk to the subject increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary enhancement of the angiographic data through spatiotemporal reconstruction and cardiac frequency extraction before image generation. This advance processing improves signal to noise ratio, enabling diagnostic quality images with reduced x-ray dosage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical approach of increasing x-ray dosage to improve image quality with a computational approach. The spatiotemporal reconstruction algorithm substitutes for additional radiation exposure by mathematically enhancing the signal to noise ratio through cardiac frequency analysis
3Quantity of substance
If catheter is advanced further into the arterial tree to concentrate contrast, then contrast efficiency is improved, but risk of catheter injury to smaller vessels increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces spatiotemporal reconstruction as an intermediary that enhances contrast efficiency without requiring catheter advancement. The algorithm extracts cardiac frequency components from the angiographic data, concentrating the vascular signal computationally rather than physically, thereby eliminating the need for deeper catheter insertion
Data Source
AI summary
An angiogram is a study of blood vessels where an angiographic chemical contrast agent is injected while a sequence of images (typically x-rays) are obtained. The contrast pattern on the sequence of images provides information about the vascular anatomy and physiology. The discovery that contrast in blood vessels varies at cardiac frequency in magnitude and phase, which may be visualized as a spatiotemporal reconstruction of cardiac frequency angiographic phenomena, enables a set of processes for increasing the signal to noise ratio or equivalently the informational content of an angiogram. In this invention, the organization of cardiac frequency magnitude and phase enables equivalent information on anatomy and physiology to be obtained with less dose of injected chemical contrast agent, less x-ray dose, and/or less navigation of the injecting catheter within blood vessels. The cardiac frequency magnitude and phase is organized so that the arterial and venous subsystems of circulation have coherence at cardiac frequency. This enables processes for diagnosing deficits of circulation that involve alterations in the transit of blood from the arterial to the venous subsystems of circulation. Furthermore, the discovery of cardiac frequency magnitude and phase organization enables the design and manufacture of lighter and more portable angiography equipment.