An augmented reality approach using pre-operative patient specific images to guide thermo-ablation procedures

Abstract

We present a system to assist in the treatment of tachycardia patients by catheter ablation. In an augmented reality framework we combine a patient specific preoperative MR model, constructed from a set of transverse, coronal and sagittal images, with intra-cardial voltage potential measurements and fluoroscopic imaging to guide the electrophysiologist. The registration of the model and the fluoroscopic images, which is done by a visual matching technique, enables an easy transfer of the measurement to the pre-operative model. By visualizing annotations of different tissue types and of the measurements, extra insight is gathered about the problem, resulting in improved patient care. Because of its low cost and similar advantages we believe our approach can compete with existing commercial solutions, which rely on dedicated hardware and costly catheters. First clinical evaluation on 31 patients indicate a considerable advantage in the diagnosis and treatment. Our future work will consist of improving 2D-3D registration and further automating the measurement procedure. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.