title: A Robotic Ultrasound Scanner for Automatic Vessel Tracking and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of B-Mode Images.
abstract: Locating and evaluating the length and severity of a stenosis is very important for planning adequate treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Conventional ultrasound (US) examination cannot provide maps of entire lower limb arteries in 3-D. We propose a prototype 3D-US robotic system with B-mode images, which is nonionizing, noninvasive, and is able to track and reconstruct a continuous segment of the lower limb arterial tree between the groin and the knee. From an initialized cross-sectional view of the vessel, automatic tracking was conducted followed by 3D-US reconstructions evaluated using Hausdorff distance, cross-sectional area, and stenosis severity in comparison with 3-D reconstructions with computed tomography angiography (CTA). A mean Hausdorff distance of 0.97 ± 0.46 mm was found in vitro for 3D-US compared with 3D-CTA vessel representations. To evaluate the stenosis severity in vitro, 3D-US reconstructions gave errors of 3%-6% when compared with designed dimensions of the phantom, which are comparable to 3D-CTA reconstructions, with 4%-13% errors. The in vivo system's feasibility to reconstruct a normal femoral artery segment of a volunteer was also investigated. These results encourage further ergonomic developments to increase the robot's capacity to represent lower limb vessels in the clinical context.
authors.forename: Samir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merouche
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Allard
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Montagnon
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soulez
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bigras
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cloutier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*