Appeal No. 2002-0311 Page 6
Application No. 09/030,241
specific points in the heart chamber during the mapping procedures” (col.
5, lines 6-13). The locations of these reference catheters are used “to
align the location of the heart chamber relative to its location on the ‘basic
image’ (col. 5, lines 37-40). Thus, as explained with reference to FIG. 3,
the system derives a transformation into the frame of reference of the
“basic image” by monitoring the locations of the reference catheters.
Stated another way, while the system acquires location of the mapping
catheter at a fixed point in the cardiac cycle, it acquires that location at a
random point in the respiratory cycle and compensates for displacement
of the heart chamber caused by this random point in the respiratory cycle
using the information supplied by the reference catheters. See also, col.
11, lines 1-11.
Ben-Haim thus discloses a system in which the location of a catheter in a first cyclically
expanding and contracting body organ (the heart) is sampled only at a fixed point of
reference in the cycle. Since this particular body organ is so located as to be
continuously moved essentially in its entirety by the respiratory action of the patient,
Ben-Haim provides compensation by sampling the locations of a catheter in this second
cyclically expanding and contracting body organ (the lungs) at random points in the
cycle and then adjusting the location sampled in the first organ to compensate therefor.
Ben-Haim teaches “[t]o correct for displacement of the heart chamber that
occurs during the cardiac cycle the catheter location is sampled at a single fiducial point
during the cardiac cycle,” with compensation being made for displacement caused by
breathing (column 5, lines 6-17, emphasis added). The reference further suggests that
“[t]he above principles can be applied for mapping other structures of the body” (column
5, lines 18 and 19). Thus, from our perspective, one of ordinary skill in the art would
have learned from Ben-Haim that it is necessary only to sample the cyclic movement of
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