Echo-Endoscope Navigation With Automated CT/MRI Registration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS) procedures face challenges due to limited spatial windows and mechanical control difficulties, making it hard for non-experts to navigate the EUS scope accurately to pre-determined anatomical locations.
Innovation Solution
A medical navigation system that includes an echo-endoscope for real-time ultrasound and video signal acquisition, a tracking system to monitor the distal tip of the echo-endoscope, and computing means to perform registration between real-time intra-operative data and pre-operative radiologic data, providing a navigation view that integrates both for precise guidance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual registration between CT/MRI and live US images is performed by selecting anatomical landmarks, then registration accuracy is improved for expert operators, but the procedure becomes impossible to implement for EUS novices and requires expert skills
Solution Approach 1:
A computer-based registration system acts as an intermediary between the EUS probe and the radiological images. The system automatically processes and aligns the ultrasound images with pre-operative CT or MRI scans, eliminating the need for manual landmark selection by operators. This intermediary system handles the complex registration task, making the procedure accessible to novices while maintaining high registration accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of landmark selection and visual alignment is replaced by an automated computational system. The computer-based system uses image processing algorithms to automatically register the EUS images with radiological data, substituting the manual mechanical operation with an automated digital process that does not require expert operator skills.
2Ease of operation
If EUS probe tracking and real-time image fusion with CT/MRI are implemented, then navigation capability for novices is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The navigation system is designed to be universally applicable to different operators regardless of their expertise level. By implementing automated tracking and image fusion capabilities, the system provides navigation assistance to novices without requiring them to master complex manual registration techniques. The multi-functional system handles both tracking and registration tasks automatically, making navigation accessible while managing complexity through integration.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for medical navigation includes an echo-endoscope configured to acquire a real-time ultrasound signal and/or a video signal; a tracking system or device configured to track a distal tip of the echo-endoscope in space; a user interface and a display; computing and storing system containing pre-operative radiologic data of a patient; wherein the computing and storing system is configured to perform a registration between real-time intra-operative data and the pre-operative radiologic data and the display is configured to provide to the user a navigation view integrating real-time intra-operative data view within the pre-operative radiologic data based on said registration.