X-ray Fluoroscopic Imaging Stent Marker Exclusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional X-ray fluoroscopic imaging apparatuses face challenges in accurately positioning stents during coronary artery interventions due to the difficulty in specifying markers within the region-of-interest, especially when obstacles are present, leading to increased surgical burden and potential misidentification of obstacles as markers.
Innovation Solution
An X-ray fluoroscopic imaging apparatus with exclusion region setting and marker extraction capabilities, allowing for the exclusion of obstacles from the marker extraction process by setting an exclusion region around them, ensuring accurate marker extraction and enhanced stent visibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a region-of-interest is set to extract markers from X-ray images, then marker extraction is performed within the specified region, but obstacles within the region may be misidentified as markers and the marker position may fall outside the region when the stent moves
Solution Approach 1:
The image processing is segmented into two distinct phases: first extracting obstacles and creating exclusion regions, then extracting markers from the remaining areas. This segmentation prevents obstacles from being misidentified as markers while ensuring accurate marker position specification even when stents move during the procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts and removes obstacles from the marker extraction process by creating exclusion regions around identified obstacles. This extraction approach ensures that only genuine markers are detected, eliminating the risk of obstacle misidentification while maintaining accurate marker position tracking throughout the interventional procedure.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If multiple radiopaque objects are present in the X-ray image, then marker detection becomes more complex, but obstacles may be erroneously extracted as markers
Solution Approach 1:
The detection process is divided into two separate steps: first identifying obstacles and creating exclusion regions, then extracting markers from the excluded areas. This segmentation resolves the confusion caused by multiple radiopaque objects, ensuring accurate marker position detection without misidentifying obstacles as markers.
Solution Approach 2:
Exclusion regions serve as an intermediary mechanism that separates obstacles from potential markers in the image processing pipeline. By introducing this intermediate step, the system can distinguish between obstacles and genuine markers, maintaining measurement precision even when multiple radiopaque objects are present.
3Productivity
If the stent position moves during PCI due to heartbeat and respiration, then continuous marker tracking is required, but the marker may fall outside the previously set region-of-interest
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the image processing into obstacle exclusion and marker extraction phases, allowing the exclusion region to remain fixed while markers are continuously tracked from the entire image area. This eliminates the need to repeatedly adjust regions when stents move, improving procedural efficiency without increasing operational complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of trying to keep the marker within a fixed region-of-interest, the invention inverts the approach by extracting the region to exclude (obstacles) and allowing marker extraction to occur from the remaining areas. This inversion eliminates the need for continuous region adjustment when stents move due to physiological processes.
4Illumination intensity
If the stent strut radiopaque is lower than the marker radiopaque, then the stent body is less visible, but the marker provides clear position indication
Solution Approach 1:
Exclusion regions act as an intermediary that prevents obstacle interference with marker detection, ensuring that the marker's position indication remains clear and accurate. This allows the system to rely on the high-visibility marker for position tracking while the enhanced image processing compensates for the lower stent strut visibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention applies image enhancement processing that emphasizes the stent structure in the final displayed image, effectively changing the visual contrast to improve stent visibility. This allows surgeons to clearly observe stent expansion and positioning despite the inherently lower radiopacity of stent struts compared to markers.
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 configuration reduces the surgical burden by preventing misidentification of obstacles as markers, allowing for more precise stent positioning and improved visibility of stent expansion, even in complex anatomical situations like branched blood vessels.
Implementation Method 1
an X-ray tube configured to irradiate an X-ray to a subject; an X-ray detector configured to detect the X-ray that transmitted through the subject
Data Source
AI summary
An X-ray fluoroscopic imaging apparatus which can accurately perform enhancement processing of a device and can also reduce a burden on an operator is provided. An exclusion region E is set so as to surround an obstacle on an X-ray image generated by an image generation unit. A marker extraction unit extracts a marker from a region except for an exclusion region in the X-ray image. An integration unit superimposes a predetermined number of X-ray images on the basis of the position of the marker to generate an integrated image. In this case, detecting obstacle as a marker can be avoided, so the integrated image becomes an image with a stent suitably highlighted. Even in cases where it is difficult to set the region-of-interest so that an obstacle falls out of the range, such as a case in which an obstacle overlaps or is in proximity to a stent, it is easy to set the exclusion region so that the marker is out of range and the obstacle falls within the range. Therefore, the enhancement processing of the stent can be suitably executed according to more various situations.