This invention specially refers to a dental implant detector using constant current source and its detecting method, which falls within the scope of anti-interference, high-sensitivity dental implant detection. It is composed of the detecting sensor, the detecting sensor socket and the implant locator. The detecting sensor socket is connected with the detecting sensor and the implant locator at two ends respectively. The detecting sensor is built with a PCB base and detecting coils mounted on the layer and plane of the PCB base. The involute racetrack copper coil on the plane of the PCB base is smaller than that on the layer by 0.1 mm both laterally and longitudinally. The implant locator is built mainly with a CPU with power supply, a constant voltage module, a status display control module and a frequency conversion module. The detector, highly sensitive, easy to operate and very accurate for location, has solved the problems like time-consuming, inaccuracy and slowness of traditional detection method. With it, the dentists are able to find the dental implant quickly and accurately before the operation, which helps reduce incidence of medical accidents.

A lesion characterization process is disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes obtaining measurements of at least one of an impedance magnitude, impedance phase, a temperature, and electrical properties of tissue of the lesion. The method further includes determining at least one lesion property including at least one of a depth of the lesion, percent transmurality of the lesion, lesion surface area and lesion volume based on at least one of the obtained measurements.

Registration of catheter-sensed intrabody voltage field measurements obtained along one or more tracks of catheter advance of withdrawal is made, in some embodiments, to reference voltage field measurements lying along predetermined tracks. Tracks optionally comprise the course of a blood vessel such as the superior or inferior vena cava, a path defined and/or limited by encounters with a wall of a heart chamber and/or apertures thereof, and/or another track of catheter motion. In some embodiments, transform parameters are propagated to regions away from the track, potentially allowing more rapid acquisition of targets.

An impedance reflector apparatus, systems, and methods are provided for detecting a marker implanted within tissue that includes a switch for changing a configuration of an antenna of the marker. The apparatus includes a set of transmit electrodes coupled to a signal generator for transmitting a drive current into tissue to generate an electromagnetic field around the marker, a set of receive electrodes configured to detect voltage signals within the tissue corresponding to the electromagnetic field, and a light source for delivering light pulses into the body to open and close the switch to change the configuration of the antenna of the marker. A processor coupled to the receive electrodes processes the detected voltage signals to identify changes in the electromagnetic field that are synchronized with the light pulses to determine whether the marker is operating properly.

A method includes receiving an anatomical map of at least a portion of a heart. Positions and respective bipolar intracardiac electrogram (EGM) signals measured at the positions are received for at least a region of the anatomical map. Primary activations and secondary activations are identified in the bipolar intracardiac EGM signals. A surface representation of the bipolar intracardiac EGM signals over the region is derived, including the identified primary activations and secondary activations. The surface representation is presented overlaid on the anatomical map.

Systems, instruments, and methods are provided verifying that a robotic surgery is being performed in accordance with a surgical plan, wherein a surgical tool having a sensor outputs a data signal that enables the trajectory of the surgical tool to be displayed as an overlay on an image of an anatomical portion of a patient and a visual or audible signal that confirms the surgical tool is penetrating the anatomical portion in accordance with the surgical plan and/or that issues an alert indicating that the surgical tool is not being inserted into the anatomical portion according to the surgical plan.

A system includes multiple electrically-conductive channels and a processor. The processor is configured to receive, over the electrically-conductive channels, (i) respective first electric currents from a probe, which is within a body of a patient, via a plurality of first electrodes, which are attached to skin of the patient at a region of the body, and (ii) a second electric current from the probe via a second electrode, which is attached to the skin and is connected to one of the channels. The processor is further configured to ascertain respective first electric-current values of the first electric currents and a second electric-current value of the second electric current, and to calculate a position of the probe between the region and the second electrode, based on the first electric-current values and the second electric-current value. Other embodiments are also described.

Systems and methods for navigation and positioning a central venous catheter within a patient. The system may include a first pole and a second pole designed to generate an electric field sufficient to obtain a plurality of field measurements. The system may include a stylet inserted into a medical device. The stylet may include a magnetic assembly configured to produce a magnetic field positioned along a distal portion of the stylet, and a stylet electrode positioned distal of the magnetic assembly. The stylet electrode may be designed to function as both an interior excitation electrode and an interior detection electrode. Advancement of the medical device in the patient may include using a conductance curve generated from the plurality of field measurements to identify an obstruction or malposition in the patient.

A method of generating a combined image of a body part from a sequence of partially overlapping source images of the body part, each of the partially overlapping source images showing the body part at one of a plurality of different times, the source images being ordered in the sequence according to the different times, the method including defining a temporally coherent sequence of transformations, for registering the partially overlapping source images in the sequence with each other, registering the source images to each other using the defined temporally coherent sequence of transformations, to obtain co-registered images, and combining at least some of the co-registered images into a combined image. Related apparatus and methods are also described.

A method of reconstructing a shape of a volume of a part of a subject based on intrabody measurements of a plurality of crossing electromagnetic fields established within the volume, the method including: receiving, by computer circuitry, measurements of the crossing electromagnetic fields carried out using at least one sensor carried on an intrabody probe, the measuring being carried out with the probe at multiple locations in the volume, to provide a set of measurement samples, each taken at a location; generating, by computer circuitry and based on said measurement samples, a transformation that transforms measurement samples to geometric positions; transforming, using said generated transformation fewer than half of the measurements in said set of measurement samples into a set of geometric positions; and reconstructing the shape of said volume from said set of geometric positions.