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Real‐time probe tracking using EM‐optical sensor for MRI‐guided cryoablation
Author(s) -
Gao Wenpeng,
Jiang Baichuan,
Kacher Daniel F.,
Fetics Barry,
Nevo Erez,
Lee Thomas C.,
Jayender Jagadeesan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the international journal of medical robotics and computer assisted surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1478-596X
pISSN - 1478-5951
DOI - 10.1002/rcs.1871
Subject(s) - tracking (education) , computer science , computer vision , cryoablation , imaging phantom , scanner , artificial intelligence , kalman filter , tracking system , physics , optics , medicine , ablation , psychology , pedagogy
Background A method of real‐time, accurate probe tracking at the entrance of the MRI bore is developed, which, fused with pre‐procedural MR images, will enable clinicians to perform cryoablation efficiently in a large workspace with image guidance. Methods Electromagnetic (EM) tracking coupled with optical tracking is used to track the probe. EM tracking is achieved with an MRI‐safe EM sensor working under the scanner's magnetic field to compensate the line‐of‐sight issue of optical tracking. Unscented Kalman filter‐based probe tracking is developed to smooth the EM sensor measurements when occlusion occurs and to improve the tracking accuracy by fusing the measurements of two sensors. Results Experiments with a spine phantom show that the mean targeting errors using the EM sensor alone and using the proposed method are 2.21 mm and 1.80 mm, respectively. Conclusion The proposed method achieves more accurate probe tracking than using an EM sensor alone at the MRI scanner entrance.