title: Probe calibration for freehand 3-D ultrasound.
abstract: Ultrasound (US) probe calibration establishes the rigid body transformation between the US image and a tracking device attached to the probe. This is an important requirement for correct 3-D reconstruction of freehand US images and, thus, for accurate surgical navigation based on US. In this study, we evaluated three methods for probe calibration, based on a single-point phantom, a wire-cross phantom requiring 2-D alignment and a wire phantom for freehand scanning. The processing of acquired data is fairly common to these methods and, to a great extent, based on automated procedures. The evaluation is based on quality measures in 2-D and 3-D reconstructed data. With each of the three methods, we calibrated a linear-array probe, a phased-array sector probe and an intraoperative probe. The freehand method performed best, with a 3-D navigation accuracy of 0.6 mm for one of the probes. This indicates that clinical accuracy in the order of 1 mm may be achieved in US-based surgical navigation.
authors.affiliation: SINTEF Unimed Ultrasound, Trondheim, Norway. Frank.Lindseth@sintef.no
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lindseth
authors.forename: Geir Arne
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Tangen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Langø
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bang
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*