A system for monitoring the respiratory activity of a subject, which comprises one or more movement sensors, applied to the thorax of a subject, for generating first signals that are indicative of movement of the thorax of the subject; a receiver for receiving the first generated signals during breathing motion of the subject; and one or more computing devices in data communication with the receiver, for analyzing the breathing motion. The computing device is operable to generate a first breathing pattern from the first signals; divide each respiratory cycle experienced by the subject and defined by the first pattern into a plurality of portions, each of the portions delimited by two different time points and calculate, for each of the plurality of portions of a given respiratory cycle of the first pattern, a slope representing a thorax velocity; derive, from the given respiratory cycle of the first pattern, a pulmonary air flow rate of the subject during predetermined portions of the respiratory cycle; compare between corresponding portions of the first pattern and average flow rates during different phases of the breathing cycle, to calibrate a thorax velocities of the subject with pulmonary air flow rates; and determine respiratory characteristics of the subject for subsequent respiratory cycles experienced by the subject, based on a calculated thorax velocity and the calibration.

A method is provided for navigating an endoscopic device through an anatomical luminal network of a patient. The method comprises: (a) commanding a distal tip of an articulating elongate member to move along a pre-determined path; (b) concurrent with (a), collecting positional sensor data and kinematics data; and (c) computing an estimated roll angle based on the positional sensor data and the kinematics data.

Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-readable media for navigating to and interacting with a region of interest during a respiratory cycle of a patient. An exemplary system includes a percutaneous tool, a plurality of patient sensors disposed on the patient, a tracking module configured to determine location and motion data of the plurality of patient sensors and a tool coupled to the percutaneous tool, a display device, and a computing device configured to receive a plurality of images of the patient's body, receive the location and motion data determined by the tracking module, generate a model of the interior of the patient, determine likely movement of the interior of the patient, the percutaneous tool, and the region of interest throughout the respiratory cycle, and cause the display device to display a graphical user interface including a window for depicting movement throughout the respiratory cycle.

This disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for characterizing a behavior of an anatomical structure. Tracking data can be generated by a tracking system to represent at least a location of at least one sensor in a three-dimensional tracking coordinate system over time. A motion model is generated to characterize the behavior of the anatomical structure over a plurality of time instances. For instance, the motion model includes at least one free parameter and a temporal parameter. Each free parameter estimating geometry of the anatomical structure derived from the tracking data, and the temporal parameter indexes the free parameter over the plurality of time instances. A visualization is generated to provide a sequence of graphical images based on the motion model to characterize behavior of the anatomical structure over time.

The invention relates to a system for assisting in navigating a medical device (1) in a region of a patient body, such as a cardiac chamber. The system comprises a unit (5) for providing a three-dimensional model of the region and an ultrasound probe (2) for acquiring image signals of the region of the patient body. At least one an ultrasound sensor (6) is attached to the medical device (1) for sensing ultrasound signals emitted by the 5 ultrasound probe (2) and a tracking unit (7) determines a relative position of the at last one ultrasound sensor (6) with respect to the live images and/or the ultrasound probe (2) on the basis of the sensed ultrasound signals. Further, a mapping unit (8) maps the determined relative position of the at least one ultrasound sensor (6) onto the model to generate a visualization of region of the patient body.

Disclosed are systems, devices and methods for providing proximity awareness to an anatomical feature while navigating inside a patient's chest, an exemplary method including receiving image data of the patient's chest, generating a three-dimensional (3D) model of the patient's chest based on the received image data, determining a location of the anatomical feature based on the received image data and the generated 3D model, tracking a position of an electromagnetic sensor included in a tool, iteratively determining a position of the tool inside the patient's chest based on the tracked position of the electromagnetic sensor, and indicating a proximity of the tool relative to the anatomical feature, based on the determined position of the tool inside the patient's chest.

A surgical instrument navigation system and method of use is provided that visually simulates a virtual volumetric scene of a body cavity of a patient from a point of view of a surgical instrument residing in the cavity of the patient, wherein the surgical instrument, as provided, may be a steerable surgical catheter with a biopsy device and/or a surgical catheter with a side-exiting medical instrument, among others. Additionally, systems, methods and devices are provided for forming a respiratory-gated point cloud of a patient's respiratory system and for placing a localization element in an organ of a patient.

A system and method for ensuring safe and tolerable insertion of a needle into a subject's body according to a preplanned or continuously monitored sequence of insertion steps. The system comprises a gripping device for gripping the needle in order to perform robotic insertion steps, yet for releasing the grip between such insertion steps, until the next insertion step is initiated. Thereby, the robot has full control of the needle during insertion steps, but does not constrain the needle between insertions, such that movement of the subject can cause neither damage nor discomfort. The gripping and insertion steps may be coordinated to keep in synchronization with the subject's breathing cycles, such that the insertion steps may be performed in the same segment of each cycle of motion of the subject's chest. The gripper can either fully disconnect from the needle, or can partially disconnect but constrain motion within limits.

A method and medical system for estimating the deformation of an anatomic structure that comprises generating a first model of at least one anatomical passageway from anatomical data describing a patient anatomy and determining a shape of a device positioned within the branched anatomical passageways. The method and medical system also comprise generating a second model of the plurality of branched anatomical passageways by adjusting the first model relative to the determined shape of the device.

The present disclosure relates to systems, devices and methods for providing visual guidance for navigating inside a patient's chest. An exemplary method includes presenting a three-dimensional (3D) model of a luminal network, generating, by an electromagnetic (EM) field generator, an EM field about the patient's chest, detecting a location of an EM sensor within the EM field, determining a position of a tool within the patient's chest based on the detected location of the EM sensor, displaying an indication of the position of the tool on the 3D model, receiving cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) image data of the patient's chest, detecting the location of the tool within the patient's chest based on the CBCT image data, and updating the indication of the position of the tool on the 3D model based on the detected location.