title: Catheter autoreconstruction in computed tomography based brachytherapy treatment planning.
abstract: The aim of this study is to develop an automatic reconstruction of brachytherapy catheters using CT (computed tomography) data. Previously no such automatic facility has existed in any treatment planning software. To achieve this facility we have developed tools for the automatic reconstruction (which we term autoreconstruction) of plastic and metallic catheters. These algorithms overcome a number of difficulties which arise when a large number of catheters are present. These include situations with intersecting catheters and with loop techniques. The time required for the catheter reconstruction process using our autoreconstruction method is significantly reduced. The accuracy of our autoreconstruction is at least as high as the classical manual slice-by-slice method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics & Engineering, Strahlenklinik, Städtische Kliniken Offenbach, Germany. milickovic@aol.com
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Milickovic
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giannouli
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baltas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lahanas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kolotas
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zamboglou
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uzunoglu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002404:Catheterization; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000532:radiotherapy; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data