Guidewire path determination for intravascular applications

Abstract

Vascular diseases are among the major causes of death in developed countries and the treatment of those pathologies may require endovascular interventions, in which the physician utilizes guidewires and catheters through the vascular system to reach the injured vessel region. Several computational studies related to endovascular procedures are in constant development. Thus, predicting the guidewire path may be of great value for both physicians and researchers. However, attaining good accuracy and precision is still an important issue. We propose a method to simulate and predict the guidewire and catheter path inside a blood vessel based on equilibrium of a new set of forces, which leads, iteratively, to the minimum energy configuration. This technique was validated with phantoms using a ∅0.33 mm stainless steel guidewire and compared to other relevant methods in the literature. This method presented RMS error 0.30 mm and 0.97 mm, which represents less than 2% and 20% of the lumen diameter of the phantom, in 2D and 3D cases, respectively. The proposed technique presented better results than other methods from the literature, which were included in this work for comparison. Moreover, the algorithm presented low variation (σ=0:03 mm) due to the variation of the input parameters. Therefore, even for a wide range of different parameters configuration, similar results are presented for the proposed approach, which is an important feature and makes this technique easier to work with. Since this method is based on basic physics, it is simple, intuitive, easy to learn and easy to adapt.

Navigation of guidewires and catheters in the body during intervention procedures: a review of computer-based models

“…The research done in this field either focuses on catheter 10 , 11 , 16 , 17 , 20 , 37 , 38 or on guidewire selection 39 – 41 However, in practice, the instrument selection procedure is still based on the specialist’s experience, which is subjective rather than objective.…”

“…Finite-element method (FEM) is a common numerical technique to model a deformable object, 47 – 50 including the behavior of the guidewire and catheter inside the body 5 , 15 , 16 , 20 – 22 , 24 – 28 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 37 , 39 , 41 , 51 – 69 In this method, the instrument is first divided into a set of basic elements connected by nodes. A function that solves the equilibrium equations is found for each element.…”

“…In Refs. 15, 22, 37, 41, and 61, the position of the instrument is expressed based on the principles of energy minimization. Thus, the energy function is expressed as E(de)=min[Eint(de)+Eext(de)],where de is the deformation, Eint is the internal energy associated with the flexibility of the instrument, and Eext is the external energy associated with the applied forces.…”

“…To detect the collision, some studies 10 , 15 , 37 , 41 , 73 , 83 , 54 considered a circular cross section for the vessel, in which the radii might vary. Therefore, the shape of the vessel is defined by its centerline and its radius, 95 and the distance between the instrument and the centerline of the vessel is calculated as follows: D=di−(Rv−RG),where di is the nearest point to the centerline of the vessel, and RV and RG are the radii of the vessel and the instrument, respectively (Fig.…”

An improved matrix‐based endovascular guidewire position simulation using fusiform ternary tree

“…Konings et al [10][11][12][13] presented the connected beam element methods according to theoretical mechanics and Hooke's law in 2003. Cardoso et al 14 reported a novel method to simulate and to predict the guidewire and catheter path inside a blood vessel based on the equilibrium of a new set of forces, which leads to the minimum energy configuration. Next, based on previous research results, Sharei et al 15 performed a systematic mapping study on the guidewire models and other information in 2018, which was the first more complete literature review.…”