Surface Motion Tracking for Radiotherapy Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radiotherapy systems face challenges in accurately aligning and tracking anatomical changes during treatment due to patient movement and changes in anatomy, such as weight gain/loss and tumor size, which can lead to incorrect radiation delivery and harm to surrounding healthy tissues.
Innovation Solution
An image processing system that combines deformable registration with surface imaging to align medical images, such as CBCT and MR images, with surface images of the patient's skin, providing a more accurate definition of the body's boundaries and enabling precise tracking of anatomical changes over time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If only medical images (CT, MR, CBCT) are used for anatomical tracking, then internal target region visualization is achieved, but external surface boundary definition remains incomplete leading to alignment inaccuracies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines medical images (CT, MR, CBCT) with surface images captured by optical cameras to create a comprehensive anatomical model. The surface images provide external boundary information that complements the internal anatomical structures visible in medical images, eliminating the loss of surface boundary information and improving overall alignment accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If deformable registration is applied to align medical images with surface images, then complete anatomical information is achieved, but computational complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The registration process is segmented into multiple stages: first registering surface images to establish external boundaries, then using those boundaries as constraints for registering medical images. This segmentation of the registration process reduces computational complexity compared to attempting to register all images simultaneously, while still achieving complete anatomical information.
3Measurement precision
If multiple imaging modalities are integrated for comprehensive anatomical tracking, then measurement accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates multiple imaging modalities (CT, MR, CBCT, and optical surface imaging) into a unified registration framework that can handle different image types through a common deformable registration algorithm. This multi-functionality approach allows the system to process various imaging modalities without requiring separate processing pipelines, managing system complexity while maintaining high measurement precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the disclosure may be directed to an image processing system configured to receive a medical image of a region of a subject's body taken at a first time and to receive a surface image of an exterior portion of the region of the subject's body taken at the first time. The image processing may also be configured to receive a medical image of the region of the subject's body taken at a second time and to register the medical image taken at the first time, the surface image taken at the first time, and the medical image taken at the second time.