Microangiographic Image Guided Localization of a New Asymmetric Stent for Treatment of Cerebral Aneurysms

For treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the low porosity patch-like region of a new asymmetric stent must be accurately aligned both longitudinally and rotationally to cover the aneurysm orifice. Image guided interventions (IGI) for this task using either a high spatial resolution microangiographic detector (MA) or a standard x-ray image intensifier (XII) are compared. MA is a custom built phosphor-fiberoptic-CCD x-ray detector; the MA array is 1024×1024 with 43 microns pixels. We designed an experimental simulation of the IGI which involved localization using a combination of a computer-controlled rotational stage supported on a linear traverse. A catheter containing the asymmetric stent with special gold markers was positioned near the aneurysm of a vessel phantom which is contained in a flow loop to enable contrast injection for creation of roadmap images. We used four different configurations for the markers consisting of dots and lines. The true stent alignment, obtained by direct visual viewing, was determined to better than one degree rotational accuracy. The resultant IGI localization accuracy under radiographic control with the microangiographic detector was 4° compared to 12° for the XII. In general the line markers performed better than the dot markers. Experimental data show that high resolution detectors such as MA can vastly improve the accuracy of localization and tracking of devices such as asymmetric stents. This should enable development of more effective treatment devices and interventions. (Partial support from NIH grants NS38746, NS43294, and EB002873; UB STOR, Toshiba MSC, and Guidant Corp.).