Ultrasound‐based tracking strategy for endoluminal devices in cardiovascular surgery

Background Magnetic endovascular navigation of wireless or soft-tethered endoluminal devices was recently proposed in the literature. This approach allows for innovative therapeutic procedures, but developing a real-time tracking strategy, compatible with magnetic dragging, is a challenging problem and is not yet solved. Methods Two-dimensional (2D) imaging ultrasound (US)-based tracking algorithms applied to a platform for cardiovascular treatment, i.e. the MicroVAST platform, were implemented and tested for deriving the optimal strategy for tracking endovascular devices dragged by magnetic locomotion. Results The algorithm, based on the combination of Shi–Tomasi features detector, Lucas–Kanade features tracking and watershed segmentation technique, was demonstrated to be the most reliable and accurate solution for the implementation of the tracking strategy of soft-tethered endoluminal devices. Conclusions Our results encourage the development of US-based tracking algorithms for endoluminal devices in cardiovascular surgery, paving the way to a robust three-dimensional (3D) imaging US-based tracking strategy implementation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.