Florian Maier1, Axel J. Krafft2,
R. Jason Stafford3, Joshua P. Yung3,4, Rdiger Dillmann5,
Wolfhard Semmler2, Michael Bock2
1Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer
Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; 2Medical Physics in
Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; 3Department
of Imaging Physics, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX, United States; 4The University of Texas Graduate
School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX, United States; 5Institute
of Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
In percutaneous MR-guided interventions passive markers are used to delineate the position or the trajectory of rigid instruments, e.g. needles. In this work, a modified passive tracking pulse sequence for full 3D tracking is proposed. Based on the estimated 3D position of the marker, an imaging slice is automatically adjusted in real time. Measurements indicate that the pulse sequence allows accurate 3D tracking of rigid instruments. Thus, the choice of an optimal needle trajectory in percutaneous interventions is highly facilitated and under manual control of the operator.