Adapting the clinical MRI software environment for real‐time navigation of an endovascular untethered ferromagnetic bead for future endovascular interventions

A dedicated software architecture for a novel interventional method allowing the navigation of ferromagnetic endovascular devices using a standard real‐time clinical MRI system is shown. Through a specially developed software environment integrating a tracking method and a real‐time controller algorithm, a clinical 1.5T Siemens Avanto MRI system is adapted to provide new functionality for potential automated interventional applications. The proposed software architecture was successfully validated through in vivo controlled navigation inside the carotid artery of a swine. Here we present how this MRI‐upgraded software environment could also be used in more complex vasculature models through the real‐time navigation of a 1.5 mm diameter chrome steel bead in two different MR‐compatible phantoms with flowless and quiescent flow conditions. The developed platform and software modules needed for such navigation are also presented. Real‐time tracking achieved through a dedicated positioning method based on an off‐resonance excitation technique has also been successfully integrated in the software platform while maintaining adequate real‐time performance. These preliminary feasibility experiments suggest that navigation of such devices can be achieved using a similar software architecture on other conventional clinical MRI systems at an operational closed‐loop control frequency of 32 Hz. Magn Reson Med 59:1287–1297, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.