Inventors:
Rogers C. Ritter - St. Louis MO, US
Torrey Munger - Richmond Heights MO, US
John Rauch - St. Louis MO, US
Andrew F. Hall - St. Charles MO, US
Roger N. Hastings - Maple Grove MN, US
Assignee:
Stereotaxis, Inc. - St. Louis MO
International Classification:
A61B 6/00
US Classification:
600434, 600407, 600423, 600424
Abstract:
A method of localizing a medical device inside a patient's body, the method comprising: transmitting ac magnetic signals between a plurality of points of known location outside of the patient's body and a plurality of points on the medical device inside the patient's body, the signals transmitted between at least some of the points comprising at least two different frequencies; and receiving the transmitted ac magnetic signals and processing the received signals to determine the position of the points on the medical device, and thus the location of the medical device, this processing including correcting for the affects of metal in the vicinity by using the transmitted and received signals at different frequencies. In an alternate embodiment, a reference device is provided inside the patients' body, and the medical device is localized relative to the reference catheter. The use of signals comprising at least two frequencies may or may not be used in this relative localization embodiment, but preferably is used at least to localize the reference catheter.
