Frame-by-frame 3D catheter tracking methods for an inverse geometry cardiac interventional system

The Scanning-Beam Digital X-ray (SBDX) system performs rapid scanning of a narrow x-ray beam using an electronically scanned focal spot and inverse beam geometry. SBDX's ability to perform real-time multi-plane tomosynthesis with high dose efficiency is well-suited to interventional procedures such as left atrial ablation, where precise knowledge of catheter positioning is desired and imaging times are long. We describe and evaluate techniques for frame-by-frame 3D localization of multiple catheter electrodes from the stacks of tomosynthetic images generated by SBDX. The localization algorithms operate on gradient-filtered versions of the tomosynthetic planes. Small high contrast objects are identified by thresholding the stack of images and applying connected component analysis. The 3D coordinate of each object is the center-of-mass of each connected component. Simulated scans of phantoms containing 1-mm platinum spheres were used to evaluate localization performance with the SBDX prototype (5.5 x 5.5 cm detector, 3 degrees tomographic angle) and a with new SBDX detector under design (10-cm wide x 6 cm, 6 degrees x 3 degrees). Z-coordinate error with the SBDX prototype was -0.6 +/- 0.7 mm (mean+/-standard deviation) with 28 cm acrylic, 24.3 kWp source operation, and 12-mm plane spacing. Localization improved to -0.3 +/- 0.3 mm using the wider SBDX detector and a 3-mm plane spacing. The effects of tomographic angle, plane-to-plane spacing, and object velocity are evaluated, and a simulation demonstrating ablation catheter localization within a real anatomic background is presented. Results indicate that SBDX is capable of precise real-time 3D tracking of high contrast objects.