Navigation with electromagnetic tracking for interventional radiology procedures: a feasibility study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the feasibility of the use of preprocedural imaging for guide wire, catheter, and needle navigation with electromagnetic tracking in phantom and animal models.


METHODS
An image-guided intervention software system was developed based on open-source software components. Catheters, needles, and guide wires were constructed with small position and orientation sensors in the tips. A tetrahedral-shaped weak electromagnetic field generator was placed in proximity to an abdominal vascular phantom or three pigs on the angiography table. Preprocedural computed tomographic (CT) images of the phantom or pig were loaded into custom-developed tracking, registration, navigation, and rendering software. Devices were manipulated within the phantom or pig with guidance from the previously acquired CT scan and simultaneous real-time angiography. Navigation within positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance (MR) volumetric datasets was also performed. External and endovascular fiducials were used for registration in the phantom, and registration error and tracking error were estimated.


RESULTS
The CT scan position of the devices within phantoms and pigs was accurately determined during angiography and biopsy procedures, with manageable error for some applications. Preprocedural CT depicted the anatomy in the region of the devices with real-time position updating and minimal registration error and tracking error (<5 mm). PET can also be used with this system to guide percutaneous biopsies to the most metabolically active region of a tumor.


CONCLUSIONS
Previously acquired CT, MR, or PET data can be accurately codisplayed during procedures with reconstructed imaging based on the position and orientation of catheters, guide wires, or needles. Multimodality interventions are feasible by allowing the real-time updated display of previously acquired functional or morphologic imaging during angiography, biopsy, and ablation.
Wood
Bradford J
BJ
Diagnostic Radiology Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Building 10, Room 1C-660, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. bwood@nih.gov
Zhang
Hui
H
Durrani
Amir
A
Glossop
Neil
N
Ranjan
Sohan
S
Lindisch
David
D
Levy
Eliott
E
Banovac
Filip
F
Borgert
Joern
J
Krueger
Sascha
S
Kruecker
Jochen
J
Viswanathan
Anand
A
Cleary
Kevin
K
D000792:Angiography; D000818:Animals; D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000379:methods; D002404:Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004582:Electronics, Medical / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D023421:Models, Animal; D009339:Needles; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D015641:Radiography, Interventional; D015642:Radiology, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012984:Software; D013552:Swine; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed