A Tensor-Based Catheter and Wire Detection and Tracking Framework and Its Clinical Applications

Objective: Catheters and wires are used extensively in cardiac catheterization procedures. Detecting their positions in fluoroscopic X-ray images is important for several clinical applications such as motion compensation and co-registration between 2D and 3D imaging modalities. Detecting the complete length of a catheter or wire object as well as electrode positions on the catheter or wire is a challenging task. Method: In this paper, an automatic detection framework for catheters and wires is developed. It is based on path reconstruction from image tensors, which are eigen direction vectors generated from a multiscale vessel enhancement filter. A catheter or a wire object is detected as the smooth path along those eigen direction vectors. Furthermore, a real-time tracking method based on a template generated from the detection method was developed. Results: The proposed framework was tested on a total of 7,754 X-ray images. Detection errors for catheters and guidewires are 0.56 +/- 0.28 mm and 0.68 +/- 0.33 mm, respectively. The proposed framework was also tested and validated in two clinical applications. For motion compensation using catheter tracking, the 2D target registration errors (TRE) of 1.8 mm +/- 0.9 mm was achieved. For co-registration between 2D X-ray images and 3D models from MRI images, a TRE of 2.3 +/- 0.9 mm was achieved. Conclusion: A novel and fully automatic detection framework and its clinical applications are developed. Significance: The proposed framework can be applied to improve the accuracy of image-guidance systems for cardiac catheterization procedures.