A virtual platform for real-time performance analysis of electromagnetic tracking systems for surgical navigation

<p class="Abstract">Electromagnetic Tracking Systems (EMTSs) are widely used in surgical navigation, allowing to improve the outcome of diagnosis and surgical interventions, by providing the surgeon with real-time position of surgical instruments during medical procedures. However, particular effort was dedicated to the development of efficient and robust algorithms, to obtain an accurate estimation of the instrument position for distances from the magnetic field generator beyond 0.5 m. Indeed, the main goal is to improve the limited range of current commercial systems, which strongly affects the freedom of movement of the medical team. Studies are currently being conducted to optimize the magnetic field generator configuration (both geometrical arrangements and electrical properties) since it affects tracking accuracy. In this paper, we propose a virtual platform for assessing the performance of EMTSs for surgical navigation, providing real-time results and statistics, and allowing to track instruments both in real and simulated environments. Simulations and experimental tests are performed to validate the proposed virtual platform, by employing it to assess the performance of a real EMTS. The platform offers a real-time tool to analyze EMTS components and field generator configurations, for a deeper understanding of EMTS technology, thus supporting engineers during system design and characterization.</p>

Radiation therapy for prostate cancer: What’s the best in 2021

Radiotherapy is highly involved in the management of prostate cancer. Its features and potential applications experienced a radical evolution over last decades, as they are associated to the continuous evolution of available technology and current oncological innovations. Some application of radiotherapy like brachytherapy have been recently enriched by innovative features and multidisciplinary dedications. In this report we aim to put some questions regarding the following issues regarding multiple aspects of modern application of radiation oncology: the current application of radiation oncology; the modern role of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for both the management of primary lesions and for lymph-nodal recurrence; the management of the oligometastatic presentations; the role of brachytherapy; the aid played by the application of the organ at risk spacer (spacer OAR), fiducial markers, electromagnetic tracking systems and on-line Magnetic Resonance guided radiotherapy (MRgRT), and the role of the new opportunity represented by radiomic analysis.

Robust Catheter Tracking by Fusing Electromagnetic Tracking, Fiber Bragg Grating and Sparse Fluoroscopic Images

<p>In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the shape sensing accuracy of FBG for catheter by fusing FBG-based sensed shape with sparse fluoroscopic images. The main advantage of the new proposed method compared to other methods are the limited number in fluoroscopic image used during procedure while it still maintains high precision real-time 3D visualization of the catheter. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method 2D and 3D dynamic experiments were carried out and they shows promising results. For a catheter with an embedded fiber length of 170 mm, the proposed approach can reconstruct the 3D shape with a median root mean square error of 0.54 mm were seen in the 3D experiments compared to the traditional approach of using FBG alone of 0.86 mm.</p>

Robust Catheter Tracking by Fusing Electromagnetic Tracking, Fiber Bragg Grating and Sparse Fluoroscopic Images

<p>In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the shape sensing accuracy of FBG for catheter by fusing FBG-based sensed shape with sparse fluoroscopic images. The main advantage of the new proposed method compared to other methods are the limited number in fluoroscopic image used during procedure while it still maintains high precision real-time 3D visualization of the catheter. To demonstrate the performance of the proposed method 2D and 3D dynamic experiments were carried out and they shows promising results. For a catheter with an embedded fiber length of 170 mm, the proposed approach can reconstruct the 3D shape with a median root mean square error of 0.54 mm were seen in the 3D experiments compared to the traditional approach of using FBG alone of 0.86 mm.</p>