A method and apparatus for surface scanning in medical imaging is provided. The surface scanning apparatus comprises an image source, a first optical fiber bundle comprising first optical fibers having proximal ends and distal ends, and a first optical coupler for coupling an image from the image source into the proximal ends of the first optical fibers, wherein the first optical coupler comprises a plurality of lens elements including a first lens element and a second lens element, each of the plurality of lens elements comprising a primary surface facing a distal end of the first optical coupler, and a secondary surface facing a proximal end of the first optical coupler.

A system for navigating a medical device is provided. In one embodiment, a magnetic field generator assembly generates a magnetic field. Position sensors on the medical device, on an imaging system and on the body generate signals indicative of the positions within the magnetic field. The generator assembly and reference sensors are arranged such that a correlation exists between them and the positions of the body and of a radiation emitter and a radiation detector of the imaging system. An electronic control unit (ECU) determines, responsive to signals generated by the sensors, a position of the medical device, a position of one of the radiation emitter and detector and a distance between the emitter and detector. Using this information, the ECU can, for example, register images from the imaging system in a coordinate system and superimpose an image of the device on the image from the imaging system.

Systems and methods for motion correction in medical imaging are provided in the present disclosure. The systems may obtain at least two image sequences relating to a subject. Each of the at least two image sequences may be reconstructed based on image data that is acquired by a medical imaging device during one of at least two time periods. The subject may undergo a physiological motion during the at least two time periods. The systems may generate, based on the at least two image sequences, at least one corrected image sequence relating to the subject by correcting, using a motion correction model, an artifact caused by the physiological motion.

The present invention, in one form, is a method for deriving respiratory gated PET image reconstruction from raw PET data. In reconstructing the respiratory gated images in accordance with the present invention, respiratory motion information derived from individual voxel signal fluctuations, is used in combination to create usable respiratory phase information. Employing this method allows the respiratory gated PET images to be reconstructed from PET data with out the use of external hardware, and in a fully automated manner.

The appropriate positioning of a patient in an X-Ray imaging system can present difficulties for medical professional owing, on one hand to the small size of important anatomical aspects which need to be captured in X-Ray images, and on the other hand to the significant movements in a field of view presented by a typical patient. The present application proposes to obtain an image of the position of a patient in the field of view at approximately the same time that an initial X-Ray image is obtained. If it proves necessary to obtain a subsequent X-Ray image with updated field of view settings (for example, collimation parameters), the movement of the patient at the point of taking the second image is factored into the provision of updated field of view settings.

In a method for recording a PET image data set, an overall recording area is moved continuously through the FOV at a constant movement speed, an attenuation map of the overall recording area being used to reconstruct the PET image data record from the PET raw data. The magnetic resonance data of a slice of the patient currently located within the FOV and movement status information relating to a cyclical movement of the patient are recorded simultaneously with recording the PET raw data. A movement status class is assigned to the PET raw data and the magnetic resonance data in each case. Using the magnetic resonance data assigned to the different movement status classes, attenuation maps of the patient are determined for the different movement status classes and applied to the PET raw data assigned to the corresponding movement status class to reconstruct the PET image data set.

Methods and systems are provided for generation and storage of body contour profiles during an imaging procedure. In one embodiment, an imaging system may include a plurality of contour sensors installed along one or more rings mounted on a gantry of the imaging device along a perimeter of a bore of the gantry. A body contour profile of a subject may be generated and saved prior to and during the scan. A visualization of the body contour profile may be used by an operator of the imaging system to adjust scan parameters such as detector positions during the scan. In this way, a real-time visualization of a body contour of a subject may be used by the operator to control the imaging procedure and generate improved medical images.

A method and apparatus for surface scanning in medical imaging is provided. The surface scanning apparatus comprises an image source, a first optical fiber bundle comprising first optical fibers having proximal ends and distal ends, and a first optical coupler for coupling an image from the image source into the proximal ends of the first optical fibers, wherein the first optical coupler comprises a plurality of lens elements including a first lens element and a second lens element, each of the plurality of lens elements comprising a primary surface facing a distal end of the first optical coupler, and a secondary surface facing a proximal end of the first optical coupler.

An apparatus for displaying a moving region of interest located within a body includes a positioning system to determine a position and orientation (P&O) of a medical device as well as to track, using an internal position reference sensor, the motion of the region of interest over time. A compensation function block generates a motion compensation function based on the motion of the region of interest, which is configured to compensate for the motion of the region of interest between a first time, for example a time at which an image was acquired and a second time, for example a time at which a P&O of the device was measured. The measured P&O is corrected using the compensation function. A representation of the medical device is superimposed on the image in accordance with the corrected P&O.

In order to improve the noise suppression in a video image stream 3 of a medical image recording system, the video image stream including a sequence of frames, it is provided that an image processing unit 5 of the image recording system analyses the video image stream 3 continuously in real time and determines at least one variability between successive image pixels of the frames, for example of spatially adjacent image pixels of frames and/or of image pixels of a plurality of the frames corresponding to one another spatially and temporally, in order, on the basis of the variability determined, to set at least one parameter of a noise suppression subsequently applied to the video image stream 3. As a result, the noise suppression can be adapted continuously to a current recording situation.