PATIENT PRE-POSITIONING IN FRAMELESS CRANIAL RADIOSURGERY USING THERMAL IMAGING

摘要

Disclosed is a computer-implemented medical data processing method for supporting positioning a patient for treatment by at least one of radiotherapy or radiosurgery, the method comprising executing, on at least one processor of at least one computer, steps of: a) acquiring (S1), at the at least one processor, planning image data describing a digital planning image of a reference structure; b) acquiring (S2), at the at least one processor, reference structure position data describing a predetermined relative position between the reference structure and an anatomical body part of the patient's body and describing a relative position between the reference structure and a predetermined reference position; c) acquiring (S3), at the at least one processor, thermal image data describing a digital thermal image of the reference structure; d) acquiring (S4), at the at least one processor, imaging device position data describing a relative position between the reference structure and a thermal imaging device used for taking the digital thermal image and describing a predetermined relative position between the thermal imaging device and the predetermined reference position; e) determining (S5), by the at least one processor and based on the planning image data, planning image pattern data describing an image pattern in the digital planning image assigned to the representation of the reference structure, hereinforth called planning image pattern; f) determining (S6), by the at least one processor and based on the thermal image data, thermal image pattern data describing an image pattern in the digital thermal image assigned to the representation of the reference structure, hereinforth called thermal image pattern; g) determining (S7), by the at least one processor and based on the reference structure position data and the imaging device position data and the planning image pattern data and the thermal image pattern data, positional difference data describing a difference between a relative position between the anatomical body part and the predetermined reference position at the point in time at which planning image data was generated on the one hand, and a relative position between the anatomical body part and the predetermined reference position at the point in time at which the thermal image data was generated on the other hand.