Evaluation of Electromagnetically Tracked Transbronchial Needle Aspiration in a Ventilated Porcine Lung

摘要

Transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) is a common procedure to collect tissue samples from the inside of the lung for diagnostic use. However, the main drawback of the procedure is that it has to be blindly performed because the biopsy target region is behind the bronchial wall and hence not within the field of view of the bronchoscope. Thus, the diagnostic yield rate is low. To increase success rate of TBNA biopsy an electromagnetic trackable TBNA needle has been introduced. Nevertheless, the introduced prototype TBNA instrument was evaluated in a rigid rubber phantom without taking respiratory motion into account. The purpose of this study is to present a new TBNA needle where the electromagnetic sensor is directly integrated into a TBNA needle and to access its performance in a regularly ventilated lung. Using our previously presented navigation system, seven TBNA interventions were performed in a porcine lung during regular respiration lung movement; respectively a control computer tomography scan was acquired. We evaluated tracking accuracy of the electromagnetically tracked needle during the entire respiratory cycle for each intervention. The newly developed TBNA needle successfully operated throughout all seven interventions. According to the results, our electromagnetic TBNA tracking system is a promising approach to increase the TBNA biopsy success rate.