Angular needle tracker and stabilizer for image-guided interventions

Introduction Minimally invasive image-guided interventions have changed the face of procedural medicine. For these procedures, safety and efficacy depend on precise needle placement. Needle targeting devices help improve the accuracy of needle placement, but their use has not seen broad penetration. Some of these devices are costly and require major modifications to the clinical workflow. In this article, we developed a low-cost, disposable, and easy-to-use angulation tracking device, which was based on a redesigned commercial passive needle holder. Material and methods The new design provided real-time angulation information for needle tracking. In this design, two potentiometers were used as angulation sensors, and they were connected to two axes of the passive needle holder’s arch structure through a 3 D-printed bridge structure. A control unit included an Arduino Pro Mini, a Bluetooth module, and two rechargeable batteries. The angulation was calculated and communicated in real time to a novel developed smartphone app, where real-time angulation information was displayed for guiding the operator to position the needle to the planned angles. Results The open-air test results showed that the average errors are 1.03° and 1.08° for left–right angulation and head–foot angulation, respectively. The animal cadaver tests revealed that the novel system had an average angular error of 3.2° and a radial distance error of 3.1 mm. Conclusions The accuracy was comparable with some commercially available solutions. The novel and low-cost needle tracking device may find a role as part of a real-time precision approach to both planning and implementation of image-guided therapies

SMART IMAGE-GUIDED NEEDLE INSERTION FOR TISSUE BIOPSY

M.S

Gabor-based needle detection and tracking in three-dimensional ultrasound data volumes

Abstract- During needle interventions for e.g. regional anaesthesia or biopsy, it is very important to visualize the needle and its tip with respect to important structures in the body. In this work, we propose a novel image-based needle detection technique in a 3D ultrasound volume dataset, which can improve the intervention. We present a novel application of the 3D Gabor transformation, which exploits needle-like structures with appropriate designs. Furthermore, we introduce a needle tracking algorithm based on Gradient Descent and show that it limits the computational complexity and detection error. Finally, we visualize the needle on 2D cross-sections of the volume in order to be presented to the physician. Evaluation of our system in challenging cases shows a high detection score (up to 100% but needs larger sets) and accurate visualization