| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20080240526 | OBJECT RECOGNITION SYSTEM FOR MEDICAL IMAGING - An improved system and method (i.e. utility) for segmentation of medical images is provided. The utility fits an estimated boundary on a structure of interest in an automated selection and lifting process. The estimated boundary may be a model boundary that is generated actual boundaries of like structures. In one arrangement, the boundaries may be selected based on the age and/or ethnicity of a patient. In further arrangements, narrow band processing is performed to estimate the actual boundary of the structure of interest. | 10-02-2008 |
| 20080249403 | TRACKER HOLDER ASSEMBLY - Provided herein are devices and methods for mounting variously configured medical imaging probes to a tracker assembly for imaging applications. In one aspect, a tracker assembly provides multiple degrees of freedom for positioning a probe relative to a patient and/or maintaining a probe in a desired location for imaging purposes. The tracker generates location information that may be utilized as frame of reference information for acquired images. In another aspect a holding device allows for interfacing/holding differently configured probes in a common orientation to a predetermined frame of reference. | 10-09-2008 |
| 20090048515 | BIOPSY PLANNING SYSTEM - Guided biopsy is a commonly used method to remove suspicious tissues from an internal organ for pathological tests so that malignancy can be established. Provided herein are systems and methods (i.e., utilities) that allow for automated application of one or more predefined biopsy target plans to an acquired medical image including without limitation, an ultrasound prostate image. Due to different shapes and sizes of prostates as well as orientation of prostate with respect to an ultrasound probe during image, acquisition a simple prostate model (e.g., ellipse) with a fixed plan may not be sufficient. Accordingly, it has been determined that a deformable shape model with integrated biopsy target locations/sites may be fit to a prostate image to provide improved automated biopsy targeting. | 02-19-2009 |
| 20090103791 | IMAGE INTERPOLATION FOR MEDICAL IMAGING - Presented are systems and methods that allow for interpolation of a 3-D volume from arbitrarily oriented 2-D medical images. The interpolation of 3-D volume from arbitrarily oriented 2-D images reduces or eliminates most constraints on image acquisition thereby allowing for, inter alia, freehand manipulation of an image acquisition device (e.g. an ultrasound transducer). Related utilities involve the use of prior information about a specific object of interest to interpolate a surface (e.g., 3-D surface) of the object from limited information obtained from very few 2-D images. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20090118640 | BIOPSY PLANNING AND DISPLAY APPARATUS - Systems are provided for managing, planning and displaying the location of biopsy core sites across multiple same-patient visits or other stored biopsy plans to increase the confidence and accuracy of biopsy results. The systems may allow the operator to fuse multiple predefined and/or automatically generated biopsy core site plans in addition to previous biopsy sites with a current prostate image to assist in creating a final new biopsy core site plan. Further, the system may allow the operator to selectively view singular parts of the final plan to simplify the planning process. Further, the systems may assist the operator during the navigation phase of the biopsy by hiding biopsy core sites from the final plan that are not of immediate interest during the biopsy phase and thereby reducing clutter and distraction during biopsy sample acquisition. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090324041 | APPARATUS FOR REAL-TIME 3D BIOPSY - A method and apparatus are disclosed for performing software guided prostate biopsy to extract cancerous tissue. The method significantly improves on the current system by accelerating all computations using a graphical processing unit (GPU) keeping the accuracy of biopsy target locations within tolerance. The result is the computation of target locations to guide biopsy using statistical priors of cancers from a large population, as well as based on previous biopsy locations for the same patient, and finally via mapping protocols with predefined needle configurations onto the patient's current ultrasound image. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090326363 | FUSED IMAGE MODALITIES GUIDANCE - An improved system and method (i.e. utility) for registration of medical images is provided. The utility registers a previously obtained volume onto an ultrasound volume during an ultrasound procedure to produce a multimodal image. The multimodal image may be used to guide a medical procedure, In one arrangement, the multimodal image includes MRI and/or MRSI information presented in the framework of a TRUS image during a TRUS procedure. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090326554 | SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FOR A TRACKING ASSEMBLY AND MOUNTED TRANSRECTAL ULTRASOUND PROBE - Provided herein are devices and methods for supporting and positioning a tracking assembly for mounting variously configured medical devices for prostate imaging, biopsy, and other therapeutic applications. In one aspect, a support assembly provides multiple degrees of freedom for positioning a tracking assembly and mounted probe relative to a patient on a patient support structure such as an examination table or a gurney bed and/or maintaining a tracking assembly and mounted probe in a desired location throughout the rendering of imaging, biopsy, or other therapeutic procedures. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20090326555 | SUPPORT ASSEMBLY FOR A TRACKING ASSEMBLY AND MOUNTED TRANSRECTAL ULTRASOUND PROBE - Provided herein are devices and methods for supporting and positioning a tracking assembly for mounting variously configured medical devices for prostate imaging, biopsy, and other therapeutic applications. In one aspect, a support assembly provides multiple degrees of freedom for positioning a tracking assembly and mounted probe relative to a patient on a patient support structure such as an examination table or a gurney bed and/or maintaining a tracking assembly and mounted probe in a desired location throughout the rendering of imaging, biopsy, or other therapeutic procedures. | 12-31-2009 |
| 20100001996 | APPARATUS FOR GUIDING TOWARDS TARGETS DURING MOTION USING GPU PROCESSING - A method and apparatus using a graphics processing unit (GPU) are disclosed for three-dimensional (3D) imaging and continuously updating organ shape and internal points for guiding targets during motion. It is suitable for image-guided surgery or operations because the speed of guidance is achieved close to video rate. The system incorporates different methods of rigid and non-rigid registration using the parallelism of GPU processing that allows continuous updates in substantially real-time. | 01-07-2010 |
| 20100004526 | ABNORMALITY FINDING IN PROJECTION IMAGES - The present invention includes a utility for determining the severity of a stenosis in a blood vessel. In one aspect, a method for improving DSA image quality includes: (1) registration of the mask and bolus images prior to subtracting procedure to reduce the artifacts from misalignment; (2) enhancement of the registered DSA image by an anisotropic diffusion technique and a nonlinear normalization technique; and (3) detecting the boundary of blood vessel and quantitatively measuring percentage stenosis, which may be done automatically. | 01-07-2010 |
| 20100004530 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR POSITION SENSING - An improved apparatus and method for position sensing of a medical tracker device are presented. The apparatus and method are designed to constrain, rotate, and track the position of a medical tool. o improve the position sensing of the tracker, a joint that provides two degrees of freedom may use a revolute gear pair together with a rotary sensor for angular motion sensing and a sliding/prismatic assembly together with a linear magnetic sensor for linear position sensing. Thus, the linear motion sensing and the angular motion sensing are decoupled. | 01-07-2010 |
| 20100016710 | PROSTATE TREATMENT APPARATUS - The presented invention aims to address these and/or additional issues by providing a tracked grid for brachytherapy applications that can adjust to changes in the prostate between original image acquisition. The grid is allowed to be moved around and even rotated under tracked conditions, such that it can be maneuvered to align with any target region. A virtual 3-D grid is displayed on a computer with respect to the actual anatomy of the patient. The tracked grid can be moved relative to the virtual 3-D grid, such that the brachytherapy, cryo therapy or any other type of image guided therapy may be performed in real 3-D or even 4-D, when motion compensation is embedded during the procedure. | 01-21-2010 |
| 20100172559 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROSTATE BIOPSY - The invention presents tools to improve a 3-D image aided biopsy or treatment procedure for prostate gland by providing additional functionality and additional visual cues on an output image of the prostate, which may be generated substantially in real-time. The tools include i) the identification of various parts of prostate to classify as per regular classification in pathological reports, ii) Computing and displaying the insertion depth of needle with respect to a selected target point during the procedure, iii) Computing and displaying the distance from needle tip to prostate surface following a procedure and, iv) Calibration for misalignment of a 2-D imaging transducer when used under tracked motion for a procedure. | 07-08-2010 |
