Multi-Mode Catheter Guidance Interface for Precise Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems lack an intuitive graphical user interface for controlling flexible and steerable elongate devices during minimally invasive medical procedures, which complicates the management of multiple degrees of freedom and navigation within patient anatomy.
Innovation Solution
A multi-modal graphical user interface is developed that supports traversal and alignment modes, providing real-time visual feedback and control options for navigating and positioning steerable catheters, including virtual endoscopic views and force indicators, to enhance operator control during image-guided procedures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a graphical user interface is provided for controlling flexible and steerable elongate devices, then the ease of operation is improved, but the device complexity increases due to the need to manage multiple degrees of freedom
Solution Approach 1:
The graphical user interface is divided into multiple display regions, each showing different views (en face view, lateral view, three-dimensional view) and information types. This segmentation allows operators to access specific control functions and visual feedback without being overwhelmed by the complete system complexity, resolving the contradiction by organizing the complex interface into manageable segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides multi-dimensional visual representations including two-dimensional en face views, lateral views, and three-dimensional reconstructions of the elongate device within the body lumen. By adding dimensional perspectives, the interface transforms complex spatial control into comprehensible visual dimensions, improving ease of operation while systematically managing the complexity through structured dimensional organization.
2Measurement precision
If real-time visual feedback is provided during navigation, then the measurement precision is improved, but the use of energy increases due to continuous imaging and processing
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides real-time position tracking for measurement precision, generates visual feedback for operator guidance, and enables navigation through the body lumen. By making the imaging system multi-functional, the patent achieves high measurement precision without requiring separate high-energy systems, thus resolving the contradiction between precision and energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates virtual copies and visual representations of the elongate device's position and orientation within the body lumen based on imaging data. These graphical copies provide precise position measurement and real-time feedback without requiring physical markers or additional energy-intensive tracking hardware, resolving the contradiction by using information copying rather than physical measurement enhancement.
Data Source
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AI summary
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: display, in an alignment mode of a graphical user interface and during alignment of a distal end of an elongate device to perform a medical procedure at a target location, first image data from a perspective corresponding to the distal end of the elongate device, wherein the first image data includes a target indicator corresponding to the target location and an alignment indicator corresponding to an expected location of the medical procedure; receive a plurality of instrument trajectories for an instrument delivered to the target location; and display a plurality of historical indicators corresponding to the plurality of instrument trajectories.