BIOPSY VIA COMPUTER AUGMENTED REAL TIME VISUALIZATION

University Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

In recent years, ultrasound-guided biopsy of lesions has been used for diagnostic purposes, often replacing open surgical intervention. However, ultrasound guidance for such interventions is difficult to learn and perform. We believe that the use of augmented reality (AR) technology has the potential to simplify both learning and preforming ultrasound-guided inteventions. AR combines computer-synthesized images with the observer's view of his or her "real world" surroundings. In the proposed system, the synthetic imagery consists of digitally processed echography data, acquired through ultrasound imaging, and the real-world surroundings are the physician's view of the biopsy patient, acquired by miniature video cameras mounted on the physician's head. Tracking systems acquire position and geometry information for patient and physician, and high-performance graphics computers generate the combined imagery in real time; the composite images are presented to the physician user via a video-see through Head-Mounted Display. The physician views the ultrasound imagery "in place," registered with the patient. Preliminary experiments with phantoms and human subjects have yielded encouraging results. Eventually we hope these techniques and systems will be useful for multiple real-time imaging modalities; currently ultrasound echography is the modality of choice. Similarly with applications, we hope that image-guided techniques will prove useful for other areas of surgical interventions, in research to be image and visual-guidance toward needle biopsy of deep targets such as those in the abdomen. With today's limited image guidance technology, it is often too risky to attempt to sample deep targets via needle biopsies.