ANGIO-LINK: on-line acquisition and assignment of gantry geometry data of biplane X-ray systems for analytic angiogram quantification in the cathlab

On-line calculations of the absolute dimensions and angiographic visualization quality of an imaged coronary segment could be helpful during intervention. To render this methods more applicable, the authors developed an automated data and image transfer from a biplane X-ray system to a cardiac work station. The ANGIO-LINK system consists of three modules for the automatic acquisition and assignment of gantry geometry data (GANTRY-LINK), patient data (TERMINAL-LINK) and angiograms (IMAGE-LINK). Assignment of the data to the selected angiograms is performed by automatic scene number recognition. The connection of the biplane X-ray system (Philips Polydiagnost C-arm & LARC, Optimus) and the image acquisition computer (Philips DCI) with the cardiac work station (Cardio 500) is highly reliable. The online quantitative coronary angiography and foreshortening display currently being developed provide the results after a few seconds