X-ray Diagnosis Apparatus Catheter Tip Direction Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
During catheter guidance in complex and narrow blood vessels, such as the coronary artery, it is challenging for medical practitioners to determine the correct direction of the catheter tip end, leading to increased X-ray exposure and contrast agent usage due to the difficulty in visualizing branching parts and avoiding plaques and thin vessel walls.
Innovation Solution
An X-ray diagnosis apparatus that extracts characteristic sites from three-dimensional medical image data to determine the tip end direction of a guide wire or catheter based on its curved shape at various positions along the path, assisting in guiding the catheter to the targeted site by presenting path information, including the tip end direction, to facilitate accurate navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a practitioner manually guides the catheter while viewing X-ray images, then the operator can visually monitor the catheter position, but the time required for catheter guidance increases and X-ray exposure increases due to difficulty in determining correct tip end direction in complex vascular structures
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores the correct tip end direction of the catheter at multiple positions along the insertion path before the actual catheterization procedure. This preliminary computation of directional information allows the operator to quickly reference the correct orientation without manual trial-and-error during the procedure, thereby reducing guidance time while maintaining positioning accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediate computational layer that processes three-dimensional medical image data to generate directional guidance information. This intermediary processing step translates complex vascular anatomy into simplified directional cues, enabling the operator to make faster decisions about catheter orientation without directly interpreting complex X-ray images, thus reducing both time and radiation exposure
2Loss of information
If the operator increases X-ray exposure and contrast agent usage to better visualize branching parts and avoid plaques, then the visibility of vascular structures improves, but the harmful effects of radiation and contrast agent exposure increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of three-dimensional medical image data to identify branching parts, plaques, and thin vessel walls before the catheterization procedure. By pre-identifying these critical anatomical features and storing their spatial relationships, the system eliminates the need for increased X-ray exposure and contrast agent usage during the procedure to visualize these structures, thereby reducing harmful exposures while maintaining complete structural visibility
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a three-dimensional virtual model (copy) of the patient's vascular structure from medical image data, which can be analyzed without exposing the patient to additional radiation or contrast agents. This virtual copy contains all necessary anatomical information including branching parts and plaques, allowing the operator to plan the procedure with full visibility while avoiding the harmful effects of increased physical imaging during the procedure
3Measurement precision
If the system provides detailed path information including tip end direction at multiple positions, then the navigation accuracy improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential directional information (tip end direction) at multiple positions along the catheter path from the three-dimensional medical image data, rather than processing and displaying all possible anatomical details. This extraction of critical information maintains high navigation accuracy while simplifying the processing requirements and reducing system complexity compared to comprehensive volumetric rendering and analysis
Data Source
AI summary
An X-ray diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to extract a characteristic site in a lumen that may be a constraint during insertion of a surgical device, from medical image data used for determining a path through which the surgical device is to be inserted. On the basis of the characteristic site, the processing circuitry is configured to determine a tip end direction defined in accordance with a curved shape of a tip end part of the surgical device, in each of a plurality of positions on the path. The processing circuitry is configured to output path information including the tip end direction in each of the positions on the path.