5,160 research outputs found
Medical image computing and computer-aided medical interventions applied to soft tissues. Work in progress in urology
Until recently, Computer-Aided Medical Interventions (CAMI) and Medical
Robotics have focused on rigid and non deformable anatomical structures.
Nowadays, special attention is paid to soft tissues, raising complex issues due
to their mobility and deformation. Mini-invasive digestive surgery was probably
one of the first fields where soft tissues were handled through the development
of simulators, tracking of anatomical structures and specific assistance
robots. However, other clinical domains, for instance urology, are concerned.
Indeed, laparoscopic surgery, new tumour destruction techniques (e.g. HIFU,
radiofrequency, or cryoablation), increasingly early detection of cancer, and
use of interventional and diagnostic imaging modalities, recently opened new
challenges to the urologist and scientists involved in CAMI. This resulted in
the last five years in a very significant increase of research and developments
of computer-aided urology systems. In this paper, we propose a description of
the main problems related to computer-aided diagnostic and therapy of soft
tissues and give a survey of the different types of assistance offered to the
urologist: robotization, image fusion, surgical navigation. Both research
projects and operational industrial systems are discussed
Optical techniques for 3D surface reconstruction in computer-assisted laparoscopic surgery
One of the main challenges for computer-assisted surgery (CAS) is to determine the intra-opera- tive morphology and motion of soft-tissues. This information is prerequisite to the registration of multi-modal patient-specific data for enhancing the surgeon’s navigation capabilites by observ- ing beyond exposed tissue surfaces and for providing intelligent control of robotic-assisted in- struments. In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), optical techniques are an increasingly attractive approach for in vivo 3D reconstruction of the soft-tissue surface geometry. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art methods for optical intra-operative 3D reconstruction in laparoscopic surgery and discusses the technical challenges and future perspectives towards clinical translation. With the recent paradigm shift of surgical practice towards MIS and new developments in 3D opti- cal imaging, this is a timely discussion about technologies that could facilitate complex CAS procedures in dynamic and deformable anatomical regions
Multi-stage Suture Detection for Robot Assisted Anastomosis based on Deep Learning
In robotic surgery, task automation and learning from demonstration combined
with human supervision is an emerging trend for many new surgical robot
platforms. One such task is automated anastomosis, which requires bimanual
needle handling and suture detection. Due to the complexity of the surgical
environment and varying patient anatomies, reliable suture detection is
difficult, which is further complicated by occlusion and thread topologies. In
this paper, we propose a multi-stage framework for suture thread detection
based on deep learning. Fully convolutional neural networks are used to obtain
the initial detection and the overlapping status of suture thread, which are
later fused with the original image to learn a gradient road map of the thread.
Based on the gradient road map, multiple segments of the thread are extracted
and linked to form the whole thread using a curvilinear structure detector.
Experiments on two different types of sutures demonstrate the accuracy of the
proposed framework.Comment: Submitted to ICRA 201
Robust Cardiac Motion Estimation using Ultrafast Ultrasound Data: A Low-Rank-Topology-Preserving Approach
Cardiac motion estimation is an important diagnostic tool to detect heart
diseases and it has been explored with modalities such as MRI and conventional
ultrasound (US) sequences. US cardiac motion estimation still presents
challenges because of the complex motion patterns and the presence of noise. In
this work, we propose a novel approach to estimate the cardiac motion using
ultrafast ultrasound data. -- Our solution is based on a variational
formulation characterized by the L2-regularized class. The displacement is
represented by a lattice of b-splines and we ensure robustness by applying a
maximum likelihood type estimator. While this is an important part of our
solution, the main highlight of this paper is to combine a low-rank data
representation with topology preservation. Low-rank data representation
(achieved by finding the k-dominant singular values of a Casorati Matrix
arranged from the data sequence) speeds up the global solution and achieves
noise reduction. On the other hand, topology preservation (achieved by
monitoring the Jacobian determinant) allows to radically rule out distortions
while carefully controlling the size of allowed expansions and contractions.
Our variational approach is carried out on a realistic dataset as well as on a
simulated one. We demonstrate how our proposed variational solution deals with
complex deformations through careful numerical experiments. While maintaining
the accuracy of the solution, the low-rank preprocessing is shown to speed up
the convergence of the variational problem. Beyond cardiac motion estimation,
our approach is promising for the analysis of other organs that experience
motion.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 201
Segmentation of the left ventricle of the heart in 3-D+t MRI data using an optimized nonrigid temporal model
Modern medical imaging modalities provide large amounts of information in both the spatial and temporal domains and the incorporation of this information in a coherent algorithmic framework is a significant challenge. In this paper, we present a novel and intuitive approach to combine 3-D spatial and temporal (3-D + time) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in an integrated segmentation algorithm to extract the myocardium of the left ventricle. A novel level-set segmentation process is developed that simultaneously delineates and tracks the boundaries of the left ventricle muscle. By encoding prior knowledge about cardiac temporal evolution in a parametric framework, an expectation-maximization algorithm optimally tracks the myocardial deformation over the cardiac cycle. The expectation step deforms the level-set function while the maximization step updates the prior temporal model parameters to perform the segmentation in a nonrigid sense
Computerized Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Images to Study Cerebral Anatomy in Developing Neonates
The study of cerebral anatomy in developing neonates is of great importance for
the understanding of brain development during the early period of life. This
dissertation therefore focuses on three challenges in the modelling of cerebral
anatomy in neonates during brain development. The methods that have been
developed all use Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) as source data.
To facilitate study of vascular development in the neonatal period, a set of image
analysis algorithms are developed to automatically extract and model cerebral
vessel trees. The whole process consists of cerebral vessel tracking from
automatically placed seed points, vessel tree generation, and vasculature
registration and matching. These algorithms have been tested on clinical Time-of-
Flight (TOF) MR angiographic datasets.
To facilitate study of the neonatal cortex a complete cerebral cortex segmentation
and reconstruction pipeline has been developed. Segmentation of the neonatal
cortex is not effectively done by existing algorithms designed for the adult brain
because the contrast between grey and white matter is reversed. This causes pixels
containing tissue mixtures to be incorrectly labelled by conventional methods. The
neonatal cortical segmentation method that has been developed is based on a novel
expectation-maximization (EM) method with explicit correction for mislabelled
partial volume voxels. Based on the resulting cortical segmentation, an implicit
surface evolution technique is adopted for the reconstruction of the cortex in
neonates. The performance of the method is investigated by performing a detailed
landmark study.
To facilitate study of cortical development, a cortical surface registration algorithm
for aligning the cortical surface is developed. The method first inflates extracted
cortical surfaces and then performs a non-rigid surface registration using free-form
deformations (FFDs) to remove residual alignment. Validation experiments using
data labelled by an expert observer demonstrate that the method can capture local
changes and follow the growth of specific sulcus
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