title: Effects of ultrasound section-thickness on brachytherapy needle tip localization error.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Ultrasound section-thickness is the out-of-plane beamwidth causing major roles in creating image artifacts normally appearing around the anechoic areas. These artifacts can introduce errors in localizing the needle tips during any ultrasound-guided procedure. To study how section-thickness and imaging parameters can affect observing and localizing needle tips, we have conducted a typical calibration setup experiment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multiple needles were inserted orthogonal to the axial image plane, at various distances from the transducer. The experiment was conducted on a brachytherapy stepper for a curvilinear transrectal-ultrasound probe.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Experiments demonstrated that the imaging parameters have direct impacts on observing needle tips at different axial locations. They suggest specific settings to minimize the imaging artifacts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The ultrasound section-thickness and side lobes could result in misjudgment of needle insertion depth in an ultrasound-guided procedure. A beam profile could assist in considering the likelihood of position errors, when the effects of side lobes are minimized.
authors: School of Computing, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada. mpeikari@cs.queensu.ca
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Peikari
authors: Thomas Kuiran
authors: TK
authors: Chen
authors: Andras
authors: A
authors: Lasso
authors: Tamas
authors: T
authors: Heffter
authors: Gabor
authors: G
authors: Fichtinger
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002138:Calibration; D004867:Equipment Design; D019220:High-Energy Shock Waves; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D009339:Needles; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted; D014159:Transducers; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*