Technologies for guidance of radiofrequency ablation in the multimodality interventional suite of the future.
Several new image-guidance tools and devices are being prototyped, investigated, and compared. These tools are introduced and include prototype software for image registration and fusion, thermal modeling, electromagnetic tracking, semiautomated robotic needle guidance, and multimodality imaging. The integration of treatment planning with computed tomography robot systems or electromagnetic needle-tip tracking allows for seamless, iterative, "see-and-treat," patient-specific tumor ablation. Such automation, navigation, and visualization tools could eventually optimize radiofrequency ablation and other needle-based ablation procedures and decrease variability among operators, thus facilitating the translation of novel image-guided therapies. Much of this new technology is in use or will be available to the interventional radiologist in the near future, and this brief introduction will hopefully encourage research in this emerging area.
Wood
Bradford J
BJ
Diagnostic Radiology Department, Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Locklin
Julia K
JK
Viswanathan
Anand
A
Kruecker
Jochen
J
Haemmerich
Dieter
D
Cebral
Juan
J
Sofer
Ariela
A
Cheng
Ruida
R
McCreedy
Evan
E
Cleary
Kevin
K
McAuliffe
Matthew J
MJ
Glossop
Neil
N
Yanof
Jeff
J
D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D015642:Radiology, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D012984:Software; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed