Aims and objectives
Ultrasound (US) fusion imaging is an emerging imaging technique which permits real-time US with parallel imaging of a pre-acquired second imaging dataset,
e.g.
a Computed Tomography (CT),
Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI),
and/or PET/CT [1,2].
In recent years,
this technique has become increasingly used in both diagnosis and image-guided interventional procedures.
The main focus of interest so far has been on abdominal US,
e.g.
the liver and the kidneys [3-11].
More recently,
fusion imaging gained interest in diagnostic Neurosonology [12] and Neurosurgery applications [13,
14].
An...
Methods and materials
Study population
Six (6) subjects (5 males,
1 female; age range: 36-86, mean age: 54 years) were included into the study.
All had a patent transtemporal bone window for transcranial insonation and routine US yielded normal findings for all intracranial accessible basal cerebral arteries.
In all individuals,
pre-registered MRI images,
obtained for reasons not related to the study,
were available.
The study was performed in the Ultrasound Lab of the Dept.
of Neurology (Charité- Universitätsmedizin Berlin,
Germany) using a commercially available US system (MyLabTwice,
Esaote...
Results
All six chosen individuals could successfully be matched and subsequently be evaluated.
After implementing the workflow,
the time needed to complete the registration steps was less than 5 minutes before routine insonation with matched imaging could be started (time for MRI data download not included).
The accuracy of registration performance was tested ipsilateral to the US acquisition,
which was obtained through the right temporal US window (Fig.
7).
In more than 70% of the cases the residual error in the points of reference was 0...
Conclusion
Our data demonstrate the feasibility of introducing a new automated registration protocol into the workflow of transcranial US fusion imaging.
The automatic registration algorithm worked in all examined subjects with excellent positional correspondence in major intracranial color Doppler-accessible vessel segments,
i.e.
the A1-ACA,
M1-MCA,
M2-MCA and ICA-Siphon.
Time needed for the registration procedure was,
despite the use of a study workflow only,
not longer than the time needed for the conventionally used external or internal marker matching procedure.
A detailed analysis was not performed because...
References
[1] L.
Zhou et al.,
“A robust registration method for real-time ultrasound image fusion with pre-acquired 3D dataset”,
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2011:2638-41.
[2] E.
Di Mauro,
M.
Solbiati,
S.
De Beni ,
et al,
“Virtual navigator real-time ultrasound fusion imaging with positron emission tomography for liver interventions”,
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc.
2013;2013:1406-9.
doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2013.6609773.
[3] L.
Crocetti L,
R.
Lencioni,
S.
De Beni et al,
“Targeting liver lesions for radiofrequency ablation: an experimental feasibility study using a CT-US...