title: Towards detecting surgical clips in 3D ultrasound for target localization in radiation therapy: a study on tissue phantoms.
abstract: A study is performed to measure the visibility of small surgical clips in 3D ultrasound volumes of a phantom as the first step towards using such clips as fiducial markers in radiation therapy. Visibility is calculated as the contrast to noise ratio of the echo from the clip to the background. The appearance of a resonance tail is also calculated using a moment analysis. Contrast is found to be high and mostly independent of material and size of the clip. All clips are visible, but the length of the tail is found to be dependent on clip orientation to the ultrasound beam. The consistent visibility of the clips suggests they are suitable as fiducial markers in ultrasound and the dependency of the resonance tail on orientation provides an opportunity to distinguish clips from other specular reflectors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queens University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Karimaghaloo
authors.forename: Prasad
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shrawane
authors.forename: Purang
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abolmaesumi
authors.forename: Gabor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fichtinger
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rohling
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*