| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20080242969 | Apparatus and method for determining an optimized path traversal for radiation treatment delivery system - An apparatus and method for determining optimized path traversal in a radiation delivery system is described. In one embodiment, determining an optimized path traversal in a radiation delivery system involves providing a plurality of spatial nodes used in a treatment plan, where each of the plurality of spatial nodes represents a position of a radiation source made available to the treatment plan for delivering radiation to a target, identifying a number of unused spatial nodes, from among the plurality of spatial nodes, at which radiation is not delivered according to the treatment plan, and skipping travel to one or more of the unused nodes by the radiation source when administering the treatment plan. Other embodiments are also described. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20090003523 | Non-collocated imaging and treatment in image-guided radiation treatment systems - An image-guided radiation treatment system includes a robotic positioning system and a tracking system that enables a radiation target to be imaged and aligned at one location and treated at another location by transferring positional data from the imaging system to the positioning system and the radiation treatment system. | 01-01-2009 |
| 20090005677 | Fiducial localization - Fiducial localization methods and apparatus are described. | 01-01-2009 |
| 20090091567 | IMAGE ENHANCEMENT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FIDUCIAL-LESS TRACKING OF TREATMENT TARGETS - A method and system are presented for enhancing one or more images of an object, so as to increase the visibility within the images of one or more structures within the object. The object may be an anatomical region of a patient, and may include one or more reference structures, for example skeletal structures or vertebral structures, and one or more treatment targets, for example tumors or lesions. An operator, for example a top-hat filter operator, selects at least a first neighborhood and a second neighborhood within the images. The operator selects within each neighborhood one or more pixels having an optimal pixel value, and eliminates the remaining pixels in these neighborhoods. When the operator is applied to the selected neighborhoods, only the pixels having the greatest pixel values remain in the selected neighborhoods, and the remaining pixels are eliminated in the selected neighborhoods. As a result, desired features can be located and enhanced in the images. | 04-09-2009 |
| 20090092228 | IMAGING GEOMETRY FOR IMAGE-GUIDED RADIOSURGERY - A system and method for stereoscopically imaging a patient at multiple locations with a radiation treatment system using a common imaging center. | 04-09-2009 |
| 20090175406 | Target tracking using surface scanner and four-dimensional diagnostic imaging data - A method and apparatus for tracking a pathological anatomy within a patient's body is described. A data model of a skin surface of the patient's body may be acquired using light reflected from the skin surface. The data model can be matched with skin surfaces reconstructed and/or interpolated from four-dimensional (4D) diagnostic imaging data, such as 4D CT data, to determine a temporal phase of the patient's respiratory motion. The identified temporal phase may then be used in conjunction with the diagnostic imaging data to identify a location of the pathological anatomy within the patient's body. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090180678 | USE OF A SINGLE X-RAY IMAGE IN A STEREO IMAGING PAIR FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE OF TRACKING - A method and system for aligning a volume of interest in a three-dimensional treatment coordinate system with a reference position using stereoscopic imaging data and for monitoring and correcting alignment of the volume of interest in the three-dimensional treatment coordinate system using monoscopic imaging data. | 07-16-2009 |
| 20100080354 | SUBTRACTION OF A SEGMENTED ANATOMICAL FEATURE FROM AN ACQUIRED IMAGE - A system, method and apparatus for subtracting a synthetically-generated image, including a segmented anatomical feature, from an acquired image. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100183196 | DYNAMIC TRACKING OF SOFT TISSUE TARGETS WITH ULTRASOUND IMAGES, WITHOUT USING FIDUCIAL MARKERS - An apparatus and method of dynamically tracking a soft tissue target with ultrasound images, without the use of fiducial markers. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes an ultrasound imager to generate a reference ultrasound and a first ultrasound image having a soft tissue target, and a processing device coupled to the ultrasound imager to receive the reference ultrasound image and the first ultrasound image, to register the first ultrasound image with the reference ultrasound image, and to determine a displacement of the soft tissue target based on registration of the first ultrasound image with the reference ultrasound image. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20100202673 | TARGET TRACKING USING SURFACE SCANNER AND FOUR-DIMENSIONAL DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING DATA - Tracking a pathological anatomy within a patient's body is described. A data model of a skin surface of the patient's body may be acquired using light reflected from the skin surface. The data model can be matched with skin surfaces reconstructed and/or interpolated from four-dimensional diagnostic imaging data, such as 4D CT data, to determine a temporal phase of the patient's respiratory motion. The identified temporal phase may then be used in conjunction with the diagnostic imaging data to identify a location of the pathological anatomy within the patient's body. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100239153 | IMAGE GUIDED RADIOSURGERY METHOD AND APPARATUS USING REGISTRATION OF 2D RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGES WITH DIGITALLY RECONSTRUCTED RADIOGRAPHS OF 3D SCAN DATA - A set of 2D reconstructed images is generated from a pretreatment 3D scan showing an initial position of a target, wherein the set of 2D reconstructed images corresponds to perturbations from said initial position along fewer than six degrees of freedom. Said set of 2D reconstructed images are registered with one or more 2D x-ray images of said target showing a current position of the target, wherein the registering includes computing a set of 3D transformation parameters that represent a change in position of said target between said initial position of said pretreatment 3D scan and said current position of said 2D x-ray images along six degrees of freedom. A positioning system is instructed to adjust a relative position of a radiosurgical beam generator to said target by an amount prescribed by said 3D transformation parameters, wherein said target is allowed six degrees of freedom of position | 09-23-2010 |
| 20110019896 | PRECISION REGISTRATION OF X-RAY IMAGES TO CONE-BEAM CT SCAN FOR IMAGE-GUIDED RADIATION TREATMENT - A method for precision registration of X-ray images to cone-beam CT scan for image-guided radiosurgery includes acquiring 2-D pre-treatment X-ray images of a region of interest, acquiring a 2-D X-ray image of the region of interest at approximately a time of treatment, registering the 2-D X-ray image with a corresponding 2-D pre-treatment X-ray image to obtain a 2-D registration result at approximately the time of treatment, and converting the 2-D registration result into a 3-D tracking result to track the region of interest. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110092793 | DYNAMIC TRACKING OF MOVING TARGETS - Treatment targets such as tumors or lesions, located within an anatomical region that undergoes motion (which may be periodic with cycle P), are dynamically tracked. A 4D mathematical model is established for the non-rigid motion and deformation of the anatomical region, from a set of CT or other 3D images. The 4D mathematical model relates the 3D locations of part(s) of the anatomical region with the targets being tracked, as a function of the position in time within P. Using fiducial-less non-rigid image registration between pre-operative DRRs and intra-operative x-ray images, the absolute position of the target and/or other part(s) of the anatomical region is determined. The cycle P is determined using motion sensors such as surface markers. The radiation beams are delivered using: 1) the results of non-rigid image registration; 2) the 4D model; and 3) the position in time within P. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110116703 | TARGET TRACKING USING DIRECT TARGET REGISTRATION - Systems, methods and apparatus to detect a treatment target having motion in up to three translational directions using direct registration of the target and track the target to synchronize a treatment beam with the motion of the target. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110160589 | DYNAMIC TRACKING OF SOFT TISSUE TARGETS WITH ULTRASOUND IMAGES - Apparatus and methods of dynamically tracking a soft tissue target with ultrasound images are described. An apparatus includes an ultrasound imager coupled to a robotic arm. A method includes acquiring a first ultrasound (US) image of a patient with an ultrasound imager, determining a quality metric of the first US image, and adjusting one or more imaging parameters of the ultrasound imager if the quality metric of the acquired first US image is less than a quality threshold. | 06-30-2011 |
