DYNAMIC TRACKING OF SOFT TISSUE TARGETS WITH ULTRASOUND IMAGES
Granted: June 30, 2011
Application Number:
20110160589
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.
TARGET TRACKING USING DIRECT TARGET REGISTRATION
Granted: May 19, 2011
Application Number:
20110116703
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.
DYNAMIC TRACKING OF MOVING TARGETS
Granted: April 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110092793
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…
INTERPOLATING AND RENDERING SUB-PHASES OF A 4D DATASET
Granted: March 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110050692
A technique for rendering a deformable volume includes acquiring 3D images of a deformable volume including an object during phases of a deformation motion. The 3D images include voxels, a portion of which move from original coordinate locations during a primary phase to deformed coordinate locations during each subsequent phase of the deformation motion. Deformation matrixes each based upon one of the 3D images during a different one of the phases are generated. The deformation matrixes…
PRECISION REGISTRATION OF X-RAY IMAGES TO CONE-BEAM CT SCAN FOR IMAGE-GUIDED RADIATION TREATMENT
Granted: January 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110019896
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…
PATIENT POSITIONING ASSEMBLY
Granted: November 4, 2010
Application Number:
20100275927
A patient positioning assembly is described. The patient positioning assembly including a plate member rotatably mounted on a base member, and an arm extending between a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is rotatably attached to the plate member. The patient positioning assembly further including a support device rotatably attached to the second end of the arm to support a patient thereon, with the support device is configured to move the patient in at least five degrees…
PATIENT POSITIONING ASSEMBLY
Granted: September 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100237257
A method of robotic patient positioning for radiation treatment using a radiation source with an arm assembly rotatably connected to a support device is described. The method includes moving the support device with respect to the radiation source in at least five degrees of freedom to align a treatment target with respect to the radiation source. Moving the support device includes rotating the support device about first, second and third rotational axes and rotating the arm assembly…
IMAGE GUIDED RADIOSURGERY METHOD AND APPARATUS USING REGISTRATION OF 2D RADIOGRAPHIC IMAGES WITH DIGITALLY RECONSTRUCTED RADIOGRAPHS OF 3D SCAN DATA
Granted: September 23, 2010
Application Number:
20100239153
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…
DYNAMIC TRACKING OF SOFT TISSUE TARGETS WITH ULTRASOUND IMAGES, WITHOUT USING FIDUCIAL MARKERS
Granted: July 22, 2010
Application Number:
20100183196
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,…
Radiation Treatment Planning and Delivery for Moving Targets in the Heart
Granted: October 15, 2009
Application Number:
20090257557
Method and systems are disclosed for radiating a moving target inside a heart. The method includes acquiring sequential volumetric representations of an area of the heart and defining a target tissue region and/or a radiation sensitive structure region in 3D for a first of the representations. The target tissue region and/or radiation sensitive structure region are identified for another of the representations by an analysis of the area of the heart from the first representation and the…
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PATIENT LOADING AND UNLOADING
Granted: October 8, 2009
Application Number:
20090252301
A method and apparatus of a positioning system are described to position an upper-half of a body relative to a head-end of a couch. The positioning system may be a patient positioning system and may include a treatment couch, a leg rest coupled to the treatment couch, and a drive mechanism coupled to the leg rest. The patient positioning system may also include a treatment couch, having a base portion of a treatment couch and plurality of detachable portions of the treatment couch. The…
FRAMELESS RADIOSURGERY TREATMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD
Granted: May 21, 2009
Application Number:
20090129545
A method and apparatus for selectively and accurately localizing and treating a target within a patient are provided. A three dimensional mapping of a region surrounding the target is coupled to a surgical intervention. Two or more diagnostic beams at a known non-zero angle to one another may pass through the mapping region to produce images of projections within the mapping region in order to accurately localize and treat the target wherein the images are captured using one or more…
IMAGE ENHANCEMENT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FIDUCIAL-LESS TRACKING OF TREATMENT TARGETS
Granted: April 9, 2009
Application Number:
20090091567
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…
IMAGING GEOMETRY FOR IMAGE-GUIDED RADIOSURGERY
Granted: April 9, 2009
Application Number:
20090092228
A system and method for stereoscopically imaging a patient at multiple locations with a radiation treatment system using a common imaging center.
