Intravascular Plaque Profiling for Precise Stent Placement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional medical image processing apparatuses struggle to accurately determine the location for placing a stent in a blood vessel.
Innovation Solution
A medical image processing apparatus and method that utilizes a catheter with a sensor to acquire tomographic images, applies a learning model to analyze plaque area ratios, calculates a threshold, and displays the results to assist in stent placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional medical image processing apparatus is used, then the apparatus can obtain spatial information of blood vessels in a non-invasive manner, but it cannot accurately assist in determining the location of stent placement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms 2D tomographic image data into a 1D longitudinal profile graph showing plaque area ratio distribution along the blood vessel. This dimensional transformation enables precise localization of high-risk plaque segments along the vessel length, providing quantitative spatial information that was not readily available from conventional 2D imaging alone.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a learning model as an intermediary that processes raw tomographic images and extracts plaque area ratio information. This intermediary component bridges the gap between conventional imaging and clinical decision-making by automatically quantifying plaque burden and presenting it in a clinically useful format for stent placement determination.
2Measurement precision
If detailed plaque analysis is performed to improve stent placement accuracy, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for stent placement decision-making - specifically the plaque area ratio along the longitudinal axis of the blood vessel. By focusing on this single critical parameter and presenting it as a 1D profile, the system avoids the complexity of displaying and analyzing all raw 2D image data while maintaining high measurement precision for the relevant metric.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the representation parameter from 2D spatial coordinates to 1D longitudinal position with plaque area ratio values. This parameter transformation simplifies the data structure and processing requirements while enhancing the clinical utility for determining stent placement location and size.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical image processing apparatus includes a catheter including a sensor and insertable into a blood vessel, a display, and a processor configured to: control the catheter to acquire tomographic images of the vessel, input the images into a model and acquire information indicating a condition of a part of the blood vessel, generate a histogram of a plaque area ratio in the vessel, acquire a length of a stent to be placed or a lesion to be treated, calculate a threshold for the ratio using the first histogram and the length, generate a graph indicating the ratio at each part of the blood vessel, and control the display to display the graph and the threshold in an overlapping manner.