3D CT-video fusion for image-guided bronchoscopy

Comput Med Imaging Graph. 2008 Apr;32(3):159-73. doi: 10.1016/j.compmedimag.2007.11.001. Epub 2007 Dec 21.

Abstract

Bronchoscopic biopsy of the central-chest lymph nodes is an important step for lung-cancer staging. Before bronchoscopy, the physician first visually assesses a patient's three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) chest scan to identify suspect lymph-node sites. Next, during bronchoscopy, the physician guides the bronchoscope to each desired lymph-node site. Unfortunately, the physician has no link between the 3D CT image data and the live video stream provided during bronchoscopy. Thus, the physician must essentially perform biopsy blindly, and the skill levels between different physicians differ greatly. We describe an approach that enables synergistic fusion between the 3D CT data and the bronchoscopic video. Both the integrated planning and guidance system and the internal CT-video registration and fusion methods are described. Phantom, animal, and human studies illustrate the efficacy of the methods.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bronchoscopy / methods*
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional*
  • Lung Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Lung Neoplasms / pathology
  • Lymphography / methods*
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Radiography, Interventional*
  • Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy
  • Swine
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed*
  • User-Computer Interface
  • Video Recording*