Measurement of needle susceptibility artifacts in magnetic resonance images

The success of minimally invasive procedures under MR-guidance can be increased by the knowledge of the current needle pose. We hypothesize that a one-toone mapping exists between the needle orientation with respect to the static magnetic field and the cross-sectional shape of the needle’s susceptibility artifact. For this purpose, we derived a mathematical model, which describes the cross sectional geometry of the needle artifact. It is approximated by two ellipses. Certain parameters of these ellipses can be utilized for mapping the geometry of the needle artifact onto the needle orientation. The relation between the two ellipse parameters α (inclination of the semi-major axis) and b (length of the semi-minor axis) and the needle’s azimuth angle can be approximated by linear regression in a certain angle interval. A combination of these two ellipse parameters is suitable for estimating the needle’s azimuth angle within a range between 0° and 60°