Intravascular Stent Detection via OCT-Angiography Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stent deployment in coronary artery disease diagnosis and treatment faces challenges such as inaccurate visualization of stent positioning within blood vessels using angiography, risk of stent overexpansion or underexpansion, and difficulty in distinguishing stent struts from background noise in OCT images, leading to potential complications like thrombosis and malapposition.
Innovation Solution
The development of a system and method that integrates angiography and intravascular data collection systems like OCT and IVUS, utilizing graphical user interfaces to display indicators for stent apposition and strut detection, which includes generating apposition bars and indicators to overlay on angiography frames, and employing algorithms for precise identification of stent struts within shadows in OCT images, thereby enhancing visualization and reducing user error.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If angiography systems are used to visualize stent deployment, then stent positioning can be observed, but visualization accuracy is insufficient and prone to error
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines angiography imaging with intravascular OCT imaging to create a composite visualization system. The angiography provides overall vessel context while OCT provides high-resolution stent strut detail, merging both modalities to achieve accurate and reliable stent positioning visualization that overcomes the limitations of either system alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a graphical user interface as an intermediary that processes and displays both angiography and OCT data together. This GUI acts as a mediator that integrates the two imaging modalities, allowing clinicians to view combined information that improves both accuracy and reliability of stent positioning assessment.
2Measurement precision
If manual review of angiography images is performed to determine stent position, then stent positioning can be assessed, but user error and variability increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides automated feedback by processing OCT image data to generate objective stent strut detection results. This feedback mechanism reduces reliance on manual interpretation, thereby decreasing user error and variability while improving assessment accuracy and consistency through automated analysis of imaging data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of reviewing angiography images with automated image processing algorithms that analyze OCT data. This substitution of automated computational analysis for manual visual inspection eliminates human variability and error, providing consistent and accurate stent position assessment.
3Measurement precision
If OCT imaging is used to detect stent struts, then high-resolution visualization is achieved, but background noise from uncleared blood cells complicates detection
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes multiple features from OCT images including signal intensity, spatial distribution patterns, and structural characteristics of detected objects. By extracting and analyzing multiple independent features, the system can distinguish true stent struts from background noise caused by uncleared blood cells, reducing false detections while maintaining high resolution.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes multiple detection parameters including signal intensity thresholds, spatial distribution criteria, and structural feature weights to optimize stent strut detection. By dynamically adjusting these parameters based on image quality and blood clearance status, the system maintains accurate detection despite varying background noise conditions.
4Productivity
If automated algorithms are implemented for stent detection, then user intervention is reduced, but algorithm accuracy must be ensured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements multiple adjustable detection parameters including signal intensity thresholds, spatial distribution criteria, and structural feature weights. These parameters can be optimized and tuned to ensure high detection accuracy while maintaining automated operation, allowing the system to achieve both productivity improvement and detection precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The automated detection system incorporates feedback mechanisms that continuously evaluate detection results and adjust processing parameters accordingly. This feedback loop ensures maintaining high detection accuracy by learning from results and adapting to different imaging conditions, while the automation itself provides productivity benefits by reducing manual intervention.
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 improves the accuracy of stent deployment planning by providing clear visual indicators of stent apposition and strut positions, reducing the risk of complications and streamlining the procedure by minimizing user intervention and error.
Implementation Method 1
Intravascular optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a catheter-based imaging modality that uses light to peer into coronary artery walls and generate images thereof for study. Utilizing coherent light, interferometry, and micro-optics, OCT can provide video-rate in-vivo tomography within a diseased vessel with micrometer level resolution.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosure relates, in part, to computer-based visualization of stent position within a blood vessel. A stent can be visualized using intravascular data and subsequently displayed as stent struts or portions of a stent as a part of a one or more graphic user interface(s) (GUI). In one embodiment, the method includes steps to distinguish stented region(s) from background noise using an amalgamation of angular stent strut information for a given neighborhood of frames. The GUI can include views of a blood vessel generated using distance measurements and demarcating the actual stented region(s), which provides visualization of the stented region. The disclosure also relates to display of intravascular diagnostic information such as indicators. An indicator can be generated and displayed with images generated using an intravascular data collection system. The indicators can include one or more viewable graphical elements suitable for indicating diagnostic information such as stent information.