Method and System for 4D Radiological Intervention Guidance (4D-cath)

Abstract

The invention relates to an imaging method for radiologically guiding an instrument during medical interventions on an object (106, 203, 302) comprising: a) providing a first image (501, 602, 706, 806, 906, 1006, 1106) of said object followed by b) providing updated images on-the-fly during the intervention to an operator by measuring an undersampled set of projections of said object (106, 203, 302) and reconstructing said updated image based on changes between said first image (501, 602, 706, 806, 906, 1006, 1106) or an update of said first image (602) and said undersampled set of projections. The invention further relates to particular uses of the method and a system for radiologically guiding medical interventions on an object (106, 203, 302) according to the method, comprising—means to provide a first image (501, 602, 706, 806, 906, 1006, 1106) of the object; —an imaging apparatus measuring undersampled sets of projections; —processing means in communication with the imaging apparatus for providing updated images on-the-fly during the intervention by reconstructing said updated image based on changes between said first image (501, 602, 706, 806, 906, 1006, 1106) or an update of said first image (602) and said undersampled set of projections.

1 .- 30 . (canceled) 
     
     
         31 . A system for radiologically guiding an instrument during medical interventions on an object, comprising:
 a rotatable gantry, the gantry comprising one or more x-ray sources and one or more detectors for performing acquisitions, wherein each of the one or more detectors comprises one or more flat panel detectors, the one or more flat panel detectors disposed opposite to the one or more x-ray sources; and   a high performance computing device (HPC), the HPC configured to provide one or more updated images of a volumetric image of the object on the fly in real-time;   wherein the system comprises a fully sampled acquisition mode capable of providing a first volumetric image of the object, wherein the first volumetric image is reconstructed from at least one fully sampled set of projections,   wherein the system comprises an undersampled acquisition mode capable of providing one or more undersampled set of projections of the object,   wherein the HPC utilizes the one or more undersampled set of projections to reconstruct the one or more updated images.   
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the one or more x-ray sources are operated at a lower radiation dose during the undersampled acquisition mode as compared to the fully sampled acquisition mode. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the HPC utilizes temporal data to provide the one or more updated images of the volumetric image of the object. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the HPC is configured to apply a first sparsifying function to the one or more undersampled set of projections to provide one or more undersampled set of sparsified projections, wherein the HPC utilizes the one or more undersampled set of sparsified projections to reconstruct the one or more updated images. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein the HPC is configured to apply a second sparsifying function during reconstruction of the one or more updated images. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 31 , comprising a fluoroscopy acquisition mode capable of providing one or more fluoroscopic x-ray images. 
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 36 , wherein the HPC utilizes the one or more fluoroscopic x-ray images to reconstruct the one or more updated images. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 31 , comprising a subtraction acquisition mode capable of providing one or more digital subtraction angiography images. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 38 , wherein the HPC utilizes the one or more digital subtraction angiography images to reconstruct the one or more updated images. 
     
     
         40 . The system according to  claim 31 , wherein the HPC is configured to perform one or more motion compensation functions to provide the one or more updated images of the volumetric image. 
     
     
         41 . The system according to  claim 31 , wherein the HPC is configured to apply one or more sparsifying functions via application of one or more instrument tracking algorithms. 
     
     
         42 . The system according to  claim 31 , wherein one or more updated images of the first volumetric image comprises a sliding prior defragmenting updated image of a previous image acquired during rotation of the gantry.