Electromagnetic tracker accuracy in the CyberKnife suite

摘要

Electromagnetic trackers have found inroads into medical applications as a tool for navigation in recent years. Their susceptibility to interference from both electromagnetic and ferromagnetic sources have prompted several accuracy assessment studies in past years. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first accuracy study conducted to characterize measurement accuracy of an NDI AURORA electromagnetic tracker within a CyberKnife radiosurgery suite. CyberKnife is a frameless, stereotactic radiosurgery device used to ablate tumors within the brain, spine and in recent years, the chest and abdomen. This paper uses a data collection protocol to collect uniformly distributed data points within a subset of the AURORA measurement volume in a CyberKnife suite. The key aim of the study is to determine the extent to which large metal components of the CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgery device and robot mount contribute to overall system performance for the AURORA electromagnetic device. A secondary goal of the work is to determine the variation in accuracy and device behavior with the presence of ionizing radiation when the LINAC is turned on.