A method and system for determining a location of a treatment element relative to an anatomical feature and for estimating contact between the treatment element and the anatomical feature in the context of a navigation system. The system may include a medical device including at least one treatment element and at least one navigation electrode and a navigation system in communication with the one or more navigation electrodes, the navigation system including a processing unit. The processing unit may be programmed to determine a plurality of points that define a surface geometry of the at least one treatment element, calculate a distance between each of the points and a closest point on the anatomical feature, and estimate the likelihood of contact between the points.

The present invention relates to an optical shape sensing system, comprising an optical fiber sensor comprising an optical fiber having embedded therein a number of at least four fiber cores (1 to 6) arranged spaced apart from a longitudinal center axis (0) of the optical fiber, the fiber cores each having a resonance wavelength in response to light introduced into the fiber cores (1 to 6) in an unstrained state thereof. The system further comprises an optical interrogation unit (21) configured to interrogate the fiber cores (1 to 6) with light in a scan wavelength range including the resonance wavelengths of the fiber cores in an unstrained state of the fiber cores (1 to 6). The scan wavelength range is set such that a center wavelength of the scan wavelength range is decentered with respect to the resonance wavelength of at least one of the fiber cores (1 to 6).

A system and method for localizing medical instruments during cardiovascular medical procedures is described. One embodiment comprises an electromagnetic field generator; an antenna reference instrument adapted to be introduced into the heart of a subject and including at least one electromagnetic sensor and at least one electrode; at least one roving instrument adapted to be introduced into the thorax cavity of the subject and including at least one electrode; and a control unit configured to determine position coordinates of the antenna reference instrument based on an electromagnetic signal from the electromagnetic field generator sensed by the electromagnetic sensor, measure an electrical-potential difference between the electrode of the antenna reference instrument and the electrode of the roving instrument, and calibrate the measured electrical-potential difference using the determined position coordinates of the antenna reference instrument to determine position coordinates of the roving instrument.

The present invention relates to a method and system of visualizing a first sensed shape of a first elongated device (14) having a first) length and a second sensed shape of a second elongated device (16) having a second length. The first elongated device (14) and the second elongated device (16) are physically linked to one another over at least a part (28) of the first and second lengths. The first sensed shape and the second sensed shape have been obtained independently of each other. The method comprises the steps: providing one of the first and second sensed shapes as a reference shape and the other of the first and second sensed shapes as a linked shape; determining along the reference shape and the linked shape an overlap region in which the reference shape and the linked shape should match due to a physical overlap of the first and second elongated devices (14, 16) in this region; copying, in the overlap region, an overlap region reference shape portion to an overlap region linked shape portion so that, in the overlap region, the linked shape is visualized as matching the reference shape.

An apparatus includes an instrument that comprises an elongated, flexible body including an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the inner surface is shaped to define a lumen extending through at least a portion of the elongated, flexible body. The instrument further comprises a plurality of portions extending along a length of the elongated, flexible body. The apparatus further comprises a radiopaque material incorporated into a first portion of the plurality of portions and a second portion of the plurality of portions, wherein the radiopaque material is incorporated into the first portion such that the first portion has a first radiopacity, and the radiopaque material is incorporated into the second portion such that the second portion has a second radiopacity, wherein the first radiopacity is different from the second radiopacity.

The subject disclosure presents systems and computer-implemented methods for calculating the diffusivity constant of a sample using acoustic time-of-flight (TOF) based information correlated with a diffusion model to reconstruct a sample's diffusivity coefficient. Operations disclosed herein such as acoustically determining the phase differential accumulated through passive fluid exchange (i.e. diffusion) based on the geometry of the tissue sample, modeling the impact of the diffusion on the TOF, and using a post-processing algorithm to correlate the results to determine the diffusivity constant, are enabled by monitoring the changes in the speed of sound caused by penetration of fixative such as formalin into several tissue samples. A tissue preparation system may be adapted to monitor said diffusion of a tissue sample and determine an optimal processing workflow.

An ophthalmic surgical system includes an imaging unit configured to generate a fundus image of an eye and a depth imaging system configured to generate a depth-resolved image of the eye. The system further includes a tracking system communicatively coupled to the imaging unit and depth imaging system, the tracking system comprising a processor and memory configured to analyze the fundus image generated by the imaging unit to determine a location of a distal tip of a surgical instrument in the fundus image, analyze the depth-resolved image generated by the depth imaging system to determine a distance between the distal tip of the surgical instrument and a retina of the eye, generate a visual indicator to overlay a portion of the fundus image, the visual indicator indicating the determined distance between the distal tip and the retina, modify the visual indicator to track a change in the location of the distal tip within the fundus image in real-time, and modify the visual indicator to indicate a change in the distance between the distal tip of the surgical instrument and the retina in real-time.

Method and system for determining the current position of a selected portion of a medical catheter inserted into a tubular organ (118) of the body of a patient, the method comprising the procedures of inserting a medical positioning system (MPS) (102) catheter into the tubular organ (118), acquiring a plurality of mapping positions (120) within the tubular organ (118), displaying a mapping position (120) representation of the mapping positions (120), constructing a mapping path (122) according to the mapping positions (120), inserting the medical catheter into the tubular organ (118) until the selected portion reaches the initial position, displaying an operational image of the tubular organ (118), a path representation of the mapping path (122), and an initial position representation of the initial position superimposed on the operational image, registering the selected portion with the initial position, measuring a traveled length of the medical catheter within the tubular organ (118) from the initial position, and estimating the current position.

A tracker system for use in image guided surgery is disclosed. The tracker system may couple to wet tissue and may include a navigation tracker and a base pad that couple to each other. The base pad may be fabricated from a plurality of nonwoven nanofibers. The base pad is configured to couple to body tissue of a patient via at least one of adsorption, hydration equilibrium, and macromolecular interpenetration.

A real-time applicator position monitoring system (RAPS) measures brachytherapy applicator displacement in real-time by computing the relative displacement between two infrared reflective targets, one attached to the applicator and the other to the patient's skin. In an aspect, RAPS can be used with any brachytherapy application. RAPS measures the applicator motion during HDR brachytherapy treatment, as well as during the transfer of the patient from the imaging room (e.g., where the CT and MR scanners are located) to the HDR BT operating/treatment room.