Respiratory motion compensated cardiac wall motion determination system

1. A system for compensating for respiratory motion induced tissue displacement in cardiac wall motion determination, comprising:

an imaging device for acquiring a plurality of sequential cardiac images of a patient; and

an image data processor for,

processing data representing first and second images selected from said plurality of sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase, to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a ventricle wall positional difference indicated between the first and second images, in response to a respiratory motion representative signal and a heart electrophysiological signal and

subtracting said heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a heart wall displacement measurement to provide a respiration compensated heart wall displacement value.

2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said image data processor determines heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement by identifying said first and second images of said sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase,

said first image substantially having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a minimum ventricle volume and

said second image having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a maximum ventricle volume.

3. A system for determining respiratory motion induced tissue displacement in a heart wall motion, comprising:

an imaging device for acquiring a plurality of sequential cardiac images of a patient; and

an image data processor for,

in response to a respiratory motion representative signal and a heart electrophysiological signal,

identifying first and second images of said sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase,

said first image having respiratory displacement characteristics substantially corresponding to a first ventricle volume,

said second image having respiratory displacement characteristics substantially corresponding to a second ventricle volume and

processing data representing said first and second images to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a ventricle wall positional difference indicated between the first and second images.

4. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said first ventricle volume is a minimum ventricle volume.

5. A system according to claim 4 , wherein

said second ventricle volume is a maximum ventricle volume.

6. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said first and second images substantially comprise End-Diastolic (ED) images acquired in different heart cycles but at substantially the same position within a heart cycle.

7. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said first and second images comprise images acquired in different heart cycles at a substantially motionless point within a heart cycle.

8. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said first and second images are acquired at a cardiac phase having relatively little heart motion in different heart cycles but at substantially the same position within a heart cycle.

9. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said first ventricle volume is a minimum ventricle volume and said respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a minimum ventricle volume comprise an anatomical positional displacement occurring substantially at an End-Systolic (ES) cardiac phase.

10. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said second ventricle volume is a maximum ventricle volume and

said respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a maximum ventricle volume comprise an anatomical positional displacement occurring substantially at an End-Diastolic (ED) cardiac phase.

11. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said anatomical positional displacement is derived from a respiratory curve presenting a scale of respiratory displacement plotted against time.

12. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said image data processor subtracts said heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a heart wall displacement measurement to provide a respiration compensated heart wall displacement value.

13. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said image data processor identifies said first image in said sequential cardiac images as having an anatomical positional displacement substantially the same as an image substantially showing a minimum ventricle volume and being acquired at substantially the same position as the ED frame within a heart cycle as determined using the electrophysiological signal.

14. A system according to claim 3 , wherein

said image data processor processes data representing said first and second images to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement of a plurality of individual heart wall portions from ventricle wall positional differences indicated between the first and second images.

15. A system according to claim 14 , wherein

said image data processor subtracts the determined heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement of said plurality of individual heart wall portions from heart wall displacement measurements of corresponding portions to provide respiration compensated heart wall displacement values.

16. A system according to claim 14 , wherein

said image data processor processes data representing said first and second images to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement of a plurality of individual heart wall portions using a graphical boundary detection method.

17. A system according to claim 14 , wherein

said image data processor performs a heart wall displacement measurement using a graphical boundary detection method.

18. A system for compensating for respiratory motion induced tissue displacement in cardiac wall motion determination, comprising:

an imaging device for acquiring a plurality of sequential cardiac images of a patient;

an image data processor for,

in response to a respiratory motion representative signal and a heart electrophysiological signal, identifying first and second images of said sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase,

said first image substantially having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a minimum ventricle volume and

said second image having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a maximum ventricle volume,

processing data representing said first and second images to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a ventricle wall positional difference indicated between the first and second images and

subtracting said heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a heart wall displacement measurement to provide a respiration compensated heart wall displacement value.

19. A method for compensating for respiratory motion induced tissue displacement in cardiac wall motion determination, comprising the activities of:

acquiring a plurality of sequential cardiac images of a patient;

processing data representing first and second images selected from said plurality of sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase, to determine heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a ventricle wall positional difference indicated between the first and second images, in response to a respiratory motion representative signal and a heart electrophysiological signal; and

subtracting said heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement from a heart wall displacement measurement to provide a respiration compensated heart wall displacement value.

20. A method according to claim 19 , including the activities of

determining heart wall respiratory motion representative displacement by,

identifying said first and second images of said sequential cardiac images presenting a ventricle in substantially the same cardiac phase,

said first image substantially having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a minimum ventricle volume and

said second image having respiratory displacement characteristics corresponding to a maximum ventricle volume.