Apparatus and methods are described including an endoluminal device configured to move along a portion of a lumen of a subject's body, an extraluminal imaging device, and at least one computer processor. While the endoluminal device moves along the portion of the lumen, a display displays an extraluminal image of the lumen in which a first indication of a location of the lumen is shown. The extraluminal imaging device acquires a sequence of extraluminal images of the endoluminal device moving along the portion of the lumen. The indication of the location of the lumen that is displayed is updated based upon the acquired sequence of extraluminal images, and the acquired sequence of images is displayed with the updated indication of the location of the lumen overlaid upon the images. Other applications are also described.

Systems and methods for image processing are provided. The method may include obtain an image sequence. The method may also include determine one or more sets of images from the image sequence, wherein each of the one or more sets of images includes one image or a plurality of consecutive images from the image sequence. The method may further include perform an image processing operation on at least one set of the one or more sets of images. The one or more image processing operation may include one or more of image segmentation, visualization, and image enhancement.

This invention relates generally to the detection of objects, such as stents, within intraluminal images using principal component analysis and/or regional covariance descriptors. In certain aspects, a training set of pre-defined intraluminal images known to contain an object is generated. The principal components of the training set can be calculated in order to form an object space. An unknown input intraluminal image can be obtained and projected onto the object space. From the projection, the object can be detected within the input intraluminal image. In another embodiment, a covariance matrix is formed for each pre-defined intraluminal image known to contain an object. An unknown input intraluminal image is obtained and a covariance matrix is computed for the input intraluminal image. The covariances of the input image and each image of the training set are compared in order to detect the presence of the object within the input intraluminal image.

In the present invention, a system and method for selection of an optimal catheter for use in a medical procedure relative to the anatomy of a patient includes the steps of providing a system including a scanning device capable of obtaining image data on a ROI within the anatomy of a patient and reconstructing a 3D image of the ROI from the image data, a display capable of illustrating the 3D image and a 3D catheter model, and a CPU operably connected to the scanning device and the display and operable to analyze the 3D image in comparison with the 3D catheter model, obtaining image data of the ROI of the patient, reconstructing a 3D image of the ROI from the image data and comparing the 3D catheter model with the 3D image of the ROI to determine the catheter with the optimal configuration for use in the procedure.

The invention relates to a positions determination apparatus for determining positions, at which an interventional instrument (3) is located, in a projection image. An input unit (16) allows a user to indicate the position of a tip (23) of the interventional instrument (3) in the projection image, wherein the positions, at which the interventional instrument is located, in the projection image are determined based on the projection image, the indicated tip position and a three-dimensional representation of the interventional instrument, which is defined by its position and shape as determined by a tracking device like an OSS device. By using the projection image, the indicated tip position and the representation the positions in the projection image, at which the interventional instrument is located, can be determined very accurately. Based on these determined positions the projection device and the tracking device can be very accurately registered to each other.

Provided is an image processing apparatus for fitting a model to image data. The image processing apparatus determines a final parameter set and a final inlier scale of a first model by iteratively performing a model estimation process and an inlier scale estimation process, wherein the model estimation process determines a model parameter set, and the inlier scale estimation process determines an inlier scale by using the determined model parameter set.

A system and method is disclosed for augmenting image data of an invasive medical device using optical imaging. An optical imaging sensor, separate from the invasive medical device, can generate images of the medical device within a patient. A trained model for the invasive medical device can be trained on annotated images of the invasive medical device with orientation and distance information of the invasive medical device. An imaging computer system can apply the trained model to images of the invasive medical device within the patient to determine a current orientation and a current distance of the invasive medical device. The images of the invasive medical device as captured by the optical imaging sensor, visual orientation information representing the current orientation of the invasive medical device, and visual distance information representing the current distance of the invasive medical device within the patient can be displayed.

An image processing method and related system to register projection images (AG, MI) only with respect to a motion of a landmark across said images. The motion of the landmark relates to a motion of a region of interest, ROI. The so registered images (AG, MI) are then subtracted from each other to arrive at a difference image that is locally motion compensated and that represents the ROI at good contrast whilst subtraction artifacts can be avoided.

Apparatus and methods are described including, using a computer processor, automatically identifying whether a given pixel within an image corresponds to a portion of an object. A set of concentric circles that are disposed around the pixel are sampled, and a first function is applied to each of the circles such that the circles are defined by a first set of rotationally invariant descriptors. A second function is applied to the set of circles to generate a second set of descriptors, each of which represents a difference between respective pairs of the circles. A third function is applied such that the second set of descriptors becomes rotationally invariant. The processor identifies whether the given pixel corresponds to the portion of the object, based upon the first and second sets of rotationally invariant descriptors. Other applications are also described.

An X-ray imaging apparatus includes an X-ray irradiation element, an X-ray detection element, an X-ray image generation element, and an image processing analysis element. The image processing analysis element reflects the analysis point on each frame based on a respective relative location between a characteristic point 10 of the X-ray image consisting of a plurality of frames. In addition, an image analysis element analyzes the time-course variation of the blood flow in the blood vessel of the heart based on the variation of the pixel value at the analysis point of each frame of the X-ray image.