Enhanced Ultrasound Visualization of Brachytherapy Seeds by a Novel Magnetically Induced Motion Imaging Method

摘要

We have devised a method called Magnetically Induced Motion Imaging (MIMI) for identifying brachytherapy seeds in ultrasound images. Ultrasound guided brachytherapy is a common treatment for prostate cancer. The overall goal of this project is the unambiguous identification and accurate localization of brachytherapy seeds with ultrasound. Accurate determination of seed location is critical in delivering the correct dose distribution to the prostate. Automatic seed segmentation and real-time dose planning are enabled by this technique. Furthermore, the technique enables ultrasound to replace CT for post-implant evaluation, by providing a mechanism by which implanted seeds may be reliably identified by ultrasound. The proposed research will investigate and optimize the materials, instrumentation and algorithms for MIMI, to develop simulation, analytic and phantom methods to explore the relevant phenomena, and to conduct clinically realistic evaluations of the method.