Clifford Weiss1, Michael Seitz2,
Karin Herrmann3, Arno Graser3, Berthold Kiefer4,
Martin Requardt4, Jens Fehre4, Ralf Nanke4,
Mamadou Diallo5, Parmeshwar Khurd5, Ali Kamen5,
Wolfgang Wein5
1Center Department of Radiology, The
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Urology
Department, Ludwig Maximilian Universitt Mnchen, Mnchen, Germany; 3Radiology
Department, Ludwig Maximilian Universitt Mnchen, Mnchen, Germany; 4Siemens
Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; 5Imaging & Visualization
Department, Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, NJ, United States
We
aim to improve prostate targeted biopsy procedures, by taking pre-acquired
diagnostic MRI images, and actively fusing them to the real-time trans-rectal
ultrasound. In this way the diagnostic power of prostate MRI is married to
the flexible, rapid and inexpensive ultrasound guided procedure. We propose a
system based on a magnetically tracked freehand ultrasound probe, combined
with a novel powerful deformable registration workflow that effectively
compensates prostate organ deformation between the two modalities. We present
initial results in terms of registration accuracy and clinical usefulness,
from a study on 19 middle aged patients with elevated PSA and suspected
prostate cancer.