Head modeling for a therapeutic or diagnostic procedure

Inventors

Mainkar, Neeraj • Pillutla, Ravi • Ghiron, Kenneth Marc • Riehl, Mark Edward

Assignees

Neuronetics Inc

Abstract

A model of a human subject's head may be generated to assist in a therapeutic and/or diagnostic procedure. A treatment and/or diagnostic system may generate a fitted head model using a predetermined head model and a plurality of points. The plurality of points may include facial feature information and may be determined using a sensor, for example, an IR or optical sensor. One or more anatomical landmarks may be determined and registered in association with the fitted head model using the facial feature information, for example, without the use of additional image information, such as an MRI image. The fitted head model may include visual aids, for example, anatomical landmarks, reference points, marking of the human subject's MT location, and/or marking of the human subject's treatment location. The visual aids may assist a technician to perform the therapeutic and/or diagnostic procedure of the human subject.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to creating a digital three-dimensional reconstruction of a human subject's head for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) using sensor-based point data. A processor determines a plurality of points associated with the human subject's head using a sensor, without requiring magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image information, x-ray image information, or computer tomography (CT) image information. The plurality of points are devoid of information relating to the human subject's hair, and a subset of the plurality of points comprises facial feature information.

Using the plurality of points and a predetermined head model, the system generates a fitted head model such that the fitted head model is devoid of information relating to the human subject's hair. The system determines a location of one or more anatomical landmarks on the fitted head model using the facial feature information. The anatomical landmarks comprise one or more of a nasion, an inion, a lateral canthus, an external auditory meatus, or one or more preauricular points of the human subject.

Based on the one or more anatomical landmarks, the system determines a position of a treatment coil and performs TMS at a treatment location. The position of the treatment coil is determined without requiring MRI, x-ray, or CT image information. The invention also includes determining a treatment location or a reference point used to determine the treatment location on the fitted head model based on the anatomical landmarks, and performing TMS at the treatment location using the fitted head model.

Claims Coverage

The document contains three independent claims (system, method, and method variant). Across these claims, the inventive features center on sensor-derived hair-devoid head point data, generating a fitted head model from a predetermined head model, landmark determination from facial feature information, and determining a treatment location or coil position without MRI/x-ray/CT image information.

Across the independent claims, the coverage focuses on building a hair-devoid digital three-dimensional reconstruction from sensor-derived points without MRI/x-ray/CT image information, identifying anatomical landmarks using facial feature information, and using those landmarks to determine coil position or a treatment location/reference point for performing TMS.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications