Bronchoscope tracking without fiducial markers using ultra-tiny electromagnetic tracking system and its evaluation in different environments.
This paper presents a method for bronchoscope tracking without any fiducial markers using an ultra-tiny electromagnetic tracker (UEMT) for a bronchoscopy guidance system. The proposed method calculates the transformation matrix, which shows the relationship between the coordinates systems of the pre-operative CT images and the UEMT, by registering bronchial branches segmented from CT images and points measured by the UEMT attached at the tip of a bronchoscope. We dynamically compute the transformation matrix for every pre-defined number of measurements. We applied the proposed method to a bronchial phantom in several experimental environments. The experimental results showed the proposed method can track a bronchoscope camera with about 3.3mm of target registration error (TRE) for wood table environment and 4.0mm of TRE for examination table environment.
Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan. kensaku@is.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Kensaku
K
Mori
Daisuke
D
Deguchi
Kazuyoshi
K
Ishitani
Takayuki
T
Kitasaka
Yasuhito
Y
Suenaga
Yosihnori
Y
Hasegawa
Kazuyoshi
K
Imaizumi
Hirotsugu
H
Takabatake
D000465:Algorithms; D020680:Bronchoscopes; D001999:Bronchoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008904:Miniaturization; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods