title: Design and in vitro evaluation of a real-time catheter localization system using time of flight measurements from seven 3.5 MHz single element ultrasound transducers towards abdominal aortic aneurysm procedures.
abstract: Interventional surgical instrument localization is a crucial component of minimally invasive surgery. Image guided surgery researchers are investigating devices broadly categorized as surgical localizers to provide real-time information on the instrument's 3D location and orientation only. This paper describes the implementation and in vitro evaluation of a prototype real-time nonimaging ultrasound-based catheter localizer system towards use in abdominal aortic aneurysm procedures. The catheter-tip is equipped with a single element ultrasound transducer which is tracked with an array of seven external single element transducers. The performance of the system was evaluated in a water tank and additionally in the presence of pork belly tissue and also a nitinol-dacron stent graft. The mean root mean square errors were respectively 1.94±0.06, 2.54±0.31 and 3.33±0.06 mm. In addition, this paper illustrates errors induced by transducer aperture size and suggests a method for aperture error compensation. Aperture compensation applied to the same experimental data yielded mean root mean square errors of 1.05±0.07, 2.42±0.33 and 3.23±0.07mm respectively for water; water and pork; and water, pork and stent experiments. Lastly, this paper presents a video showing free-hand movement of the catheter within the water tank with data capture at 25 frames per second.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, 1042 Downey Way, Denney Research Center (DRB) 140, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. jmung@usc.edu
authors.forename: Jay
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mung
authors.forename: Sukgu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Jesse T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Yen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000601:surgery*; D057785:Catheters; D057510:Endovascular Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D015607:Stents; D013552:Swine; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography