Wisconsin Patent of the Month – February 2021
Anatomical mapping systems provide the 3D position of a navigational catheter when inserted in a patient. However these systems are very costly to acquire and upkeep, and difficult to operate. Alternative methods involve using fluoroscopy for real-time catheter navigation. While these systems are costly up front, they require minimal upkeep costs. Unfortunately, they do not produce 3D image data. Fluoroscopy is a medical imaging technique that obtains real-time moving images of the patient. APN Health, LLC has designed a method to obtain a 3D position and orientation of objects like catheters within the body using fluoroscopy – and affordably so.
The system captures a stream of digitized 2D images from a single-plane fluoroscopy and detects an image of the medical object of interest. The images are subjected to digital calculations which preserve pixel intensity values, remove outlier details, and stitch images together to create accurate 3D images. Calculations are done based on the images to determine orientation and position within the system to accompany the 3D imagery. This system can be applied to any radio-opaque medical object in a living body including catheters. This combines the desired results of the anatomical mapping systems with the preferred costs of the fluoroscopy methods to provide accurate data.
About APN Health
APN Health, LLC is a new medical device company that has developed proprietary and patented software algorithms to create an innovative and cost-effective 3D cardiac imaging system called Navik 3D.
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