Uta Wonneberger1,
Sascha Krger2, Daniel Wirtz2, Christoph Leussler2,
Steffen Weiss2, Kerstin Jungnickel1, Matthias Ludewig1,
Jrgen Bunke3, Jens Ricke1, Frank Fischbach1
1Klinik fr
Radiologie & Nuklearmedizin, Otto-von-Guericke-Universitt Magdeburg,
D-39120 Magdeburg, Germany; 2Imaging Systems & Intervention,
Philips Research Europe, D-22335 Hamburg, Germany; 3Healthcare,
Philips, D-22335 Hamburg, Germany
An actively tracked needle guidance tool, directly connected to the MR system, with respective MR system software modifications to allow for simple-to-use, fast and accurate scan plane controlling with inherent registration to the MRI coordinate system is presented for the use in clinical routine for needle interventions in freehand-technique with the physician practicing from inside the open MR-system. The hand-held device is equipped with a guide bar to automatically align the needle path with the device and with a thumb switch to perform fast, immediate 90 scan plane rotations around the needle axis without actual rotation of the device while simultaneously toggling between the two viewports of the real-time interactive scanner user interface.