Structure-enhanced visualization for manual registration in fluoroscopy

Abstract

Electrophysiology procedures are in many cases performed under fluoroscopic guidance. As the heart is not visible under fluoroscopy, a preoperatively acquired heart model of the patient may be fused with the live X-ray images to provide the physician with a better orientation. This heart model needs to be registered to the fluoroscopic images. Currently, registration is performed manually, e.g., after contrast injection into the left atrium during atrial fibrillation procedures. We propose a novel visualization of the heart model that shows the same structures as the contrast agent and allows an easy identification of corresponding landmarks and features in both the model and the angiography images.