Apparatus and methods are described including inserting a tool into a blood vessel, and, while the tool is within the blood vessel, acquiring an extraluminal image of the blood vessel. In the extraluminal image of the blood vessel, a location of a portion of the tool with respect to the blood vessel is detected automatically. In response to detecting the location of the portion of the tool, a target portion of the blood vessel that is in a vicinity of the portion of the tool is designated automatically. Using the extraluminal image, quantitative vessel analysis is performed on the target portion of the blood vessel. Other embodiments are also described.

A system and method for a catheter in a luminal network including capturing images via an optical sensor, comparing the captured images to pre-operative images, identifying fiducials in the captured images that correspond to fiducials in the pre-operative images; and depicting the position of the catheter in a three-dimensional (3D) model or two-dimensional (2D) images derived from the pre-operative images.

A method and system of correcting alignment of catheter relative to a target including receiving signals from an inertial measurement unit located at a distal end of a catheter, determining movement of the distal end of the catheter caused by physiological forces, receiving images depicting the distal end of the catheter and the target, identifying the distal end of the catheter and the target in the images, determining an orientation of the distal end of the catheter relative to the target and articulating the distal tip of the catheter in response to the detected movement to achieve and maintain an orientation towards the target such that a tool extended from an opening at the distal end of the catheter would intersect the target.

Systems and methods for accurate determination of the position of an anatomic part of a subject in robotic assisted image-based surgery, using an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to determine the position and orientation of the anatomical part of the subject. The intrinsic drift of the IMU, which would make the IMU position measurements inaccurate, can be reset to zero regularly, at points of time when the subject's body is stationary. This can be achieved when motion from the subject's breathing and from the heartbeat are essentially zero. Such positions occur respectively when the respiratory signal shows the position of the breathing cycle to be at the end of the expiration phase, and the heartbeat signal represents a time in the diastole period of the subject's electrocardiographic cycle. When these two signal moments coincide, the IMU is essentially stationary, and its drift reset to zero.

Communication systems are described that use signal constellations, which have unequally spaced (i.e. ‘geometrically’ shaped) points. In many embodiments, the communication systems use specific geometric constellations that are capacity optimized at a specific SNR. In addition, ranges within which the constellation points of a capacity optimized constellation can be perturbed and are still likely to achieve a given percentage of the optimal capacity increase compared to a constellation that maximizes d.sub.min, are also described. Capacity measures that are used in the selection of the location of constellation points include, but are not limited to, parallel decode (PD) capacity and joint capacity.

The present invention relates to a device for treating an aneurysm of a human or mammal patient, wherein the aneurysm may self expand, leading to the aneurysm bursting with high risk for death of the human or mammal patient. The device is provided with an implantable member to be placed in connection with the outside of a blood vessel having the aneurysm, and to exercise a pressure on the outside of the blood vessel having the aneurysm, a measuring device or sensor for measuring or sensing an expansion of the aneurysm, and a monitoring system for monitoring the expansion of the aneurysm based on a signal received from the measuring device or sensor.

Systems, methods, and apparatus are disclosed for cardiac structure tracking. An example method includes segmenting a diaphragm or respiratory surrogate, heart, and target. The method also includes performing a peak-exhale to peak-inhale registration and generating a respiratory motion model. The method further includes tracking the diaphragm using X-ray imaging and estimating a target position for an x-ray guided cardiac radioablation treatment. The example method provides directly, precisely controlled x-ray guided cardiac radioablation that accurately targets the substrates of cardiac ablation while minimizing doses to healthy tissue.

A location of a number of fiducial points can be computed. The fiducial points can include impedance locations of an electrode disposed on a catheter in an impedance based coordinate system and magnetic locations of a magnetic position sensor disposed on the catheter in a magnetic based coordinate system. The impedance location of the electrode in the impedance based coordinate system can be transformed into a transformed impedance location of the electrode in the magnetic based coordinate system. A magnetic location of the electrode in the magnetic based coordinate system can be determined. A determination of whether an impedance shift exists between the transformed impedance location of the electrode in the magnetic based system and the magnetic location of the electrode in the magnetic based system can be made. An electromagnetic dynamic registration can be generated between the impedance based coordinate system and the magnetic based coordinate system based on the impedance shift.

Apparatus and methods are described for imaging a tool inside a portion of a subject's body that undergoes motion. A plurality of image frames are acquired of the portion of the subject's body. The image frames are image tracked by (a) automatically identifying at least a feature of the tool in at least a portion of the image frames, and (b) aligning the tool in image frames of the portion of the image frames, based on the automatic identifying. The image-tracked image frames of the portion of the subject's body are displayed as an image stream. Other embodiments are also described.

Apparatus and methods are described for use with an imaging device (12) configured to acquire a set of angiographic images of a lumen. At least one processor (10) includes blood-velocity-determination functionality (16) that determines blood velocity within the lumen, via image processing. Current-flow-related-parameter-determination functionality (18) determines a value of a flow-related parameter at the location based upon the determined blood velocity. Flow-related-parameter-receiving functionality (19) receives an indication of a value of a second flow-related parameter of the subject, and index-determination functionality (21) determines a value of a luminal-flow-related index of the subject at the location, by determining a relationship between the value of the current flow-related parameter and the value of the second flow-related parameter. Other applications are also described.