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Bone enhancement in ultrasound using local spectrum variations for guiding percutaneous scaphoid fracture fixation procedures

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The scaphoid bone is the most frequently fractured bone in the wrist. When fracture fixation is indicated, a screw is inserted into the bone either in an open surgical procedure or percutaneously under fluoroscopic guidance. Due to the complex geometry of the wrist, fracture fixation is a challenging task. Fluoroscopic guidance exposes both the patient and the physician to ionizing radiation. Ultrasound-based guidance has been suggested as a real-time, radiation-free alternative. The main challenge of using ultrasound is the difficulty in interpreting the images due to the low contrast and noisy nature of the data.

Methods

We propose a bone enhancement method that exploits local spectrum features of the ultrasound image. These features are utilized to design a set of quadrature band-pass filters and subsequently estimate the local phase symmetry, where high symmetry is expected at the bone locations. We incorporate the shadow information below the bone surfaces to further enhance the bone responses. The extracted bone surfaces are then used to register a statistical wrist model to ultrasound volumes, allowing the localization and interpretation of the scaphoid bone in the volumes.

Results

Feasibility experiments were performed using phantom and in vivo data. For phantoms, we obtain a surface distance error 1.08 mm and an angular deviation from the main axis of the scaphoid bone smaller than \(5^{\circ }\), which are better compared to previously presented approaches.

Conclusion

The results are promising for further development of a surgical guidance system to enable accurate anatomy localization for guiding percutaneous scaphoid fracture fixations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Emran Mohammad Abu Anas, Alexander Seitel, Abtin Rasoulian, Robert Rohling & Purang Abolmaesumi

  2. Kingston General Hospital, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Paul St. John & David Pichora

  3. Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Kathryn Darras

  4. Department of Orthopaedics, Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    David Wilson

  5. BC Women’s Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Victoria A. Lessoway

  6. Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Ilker Hacihaliloglu

  7. Kingston School of Computing, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Parvin Mousavi

  8. Mechanical Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Robert Rohling

Authors
  1. Emran Mohammad Abu Anas
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  2. Alexander Seitel
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  3. Abtin Rasoulian
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  4. Paul St. John
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  5. David Pichora
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  6. Kathryn Darras
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  7. David Wilson
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  8. Victoria A. Lessoway
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  9. Ilker Hacihaliloglu
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  10. Parvin Mousavi
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  11. Robert Rohling
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  12. Purang Abolmaesumi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emran Mohammad Abu Anas.

Additional information

We would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for funding this project.

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Anas, E.M.A., Seitel, A., Rasoulian, A. et al. Bone enhancement in ultrasound using local spectrum variations for guiding percutaneous scaphoid fracture fixation procedures. Int J CARS 10, 959–969 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1181-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1181-6

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