Magnetic tracking

This paper will introduce a location detecting system that aims to track a stent when it is deployed into the human artery to achieve hemostasis. It is proposed to treat an injured soldier on the battlefield, where common surgical devices such as a fluoroscopy system are not available. The locating approach in this paper utilizes a magnet outside the human body as the reference, and a magnetic field sensor that will be deployed inside the artery with the stent. The sensor can detect its location in a coordinate system centered with the reference magnet. In practice, the main challenge is that the locating accuracy will be deteriorated by external magnetic interference, rotation of the sensor, and random noise. These causes of error are addressed in the paper to improve the locating accuracy and repeatability under various conditions. Finally, the system’s performance in locating the stent, including effects of the disturbance eliminating procedures, will be validated in benchtop experiments.