Progress in the Development of a new Angiography Suite including the High Resolution Micro-Angiographic Fluoroscope (MAF), a Control, Acquisition, Processing, and Image Display System (CAPIDS), and a New Detector Changer Integrated into a Commercial C-Arm Angiography Unit to Enable Clinical Use.

Due to the high-resolution needs of angiographic and interventional vascular imaging, a Micro-Angiographic Fluoroscope (MAF) detector with a Control, Acquisition, Processing, and Image Display System (CAPIDS) was installed on a detector changer which was attached to the C-arm of a clinical angiographic unit. The MAF detector provides high-resolution, high-sensitivity, and real-time imaging capabilities and consists of a 300 μm-thick CsI phosphor, a dual stage micro-channel plate light image intensifier (LII) coupled to a fiber optic taper (FOT), and a scientific grade frame-transfer CCD camera, providing an image matrix of 1024×1024 35 μm square pixels with 12 bit depth. The Solid-State X-Ray Image Intensifier (SSXII) is an EMCCD (Electron Multiplying charge-coupled device) based detector which provides an image matrix of 1k×1k 32 μm square pixels with 12 bit depth. The changer allows the MAF or a SSXII region-of-interest (ROI) detector to be inserted in front of the standard flat-panel detector (FPD) when higher resolution is needed during angiographic or interventional vascular imaging procedures. The CAPIDS was developed and implemented using LabVIEW software and provides a user-friendly interface that enables control of several clinical radiographic imaging modes of the MAF or SSXII including: fluoroscopy, roadmapping, radiography, and digital-subtraction-angiography (DSA). The total system has been used for image guidance during endovascular image-guided interventions (EIGI) using prototype self-expanding asymmetric vascular stents (SAVS) in over 10 rabbit aneurysm creation and treatment experiments which have demonstrated the system's potential benefits for future clinical use.