Tracking Rotational Orientation of Catheter using Transmit Array System

Haydar Celik^1,2, Davut Ibrahim Mahcicek³, Ergin Atalar^1,3

A new method for the detection of rotational orientation of an inductively coupled RF (ICRF) coil using a transmit array system is proposed. In this method, a conventional body birdcage coil is used, but the quadrature hybrid is eliminated in order to use the two excitation channels separately. The transmit array system provided two identical RF pulses with different phase and amplitude at each TR in order to obtain linearly polarized excitations instead of a conventional rotational forward polarized excitation. ICRF coils are constructed on catheters for detecting rotational orientation and tracking purposes. The modifications on anatomy and the ICRF coil images are different due to this RF excitation scheme such that the ICRF coil can be separated from the anatomy image in real-time. After separating the ICRF coil from the anatomy, this novel method enables to calculate an absolute orientation of the ICRF coil constructed on a catheter in real-time.