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Calibration of mobile-gantry computed tomography for surgical navigation

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

Abstract

Purpose

Image-guided interventions that use preoperative 3D computed tomography (CT) models are limited by the preoperative segmentation time 3D image and collection of intraoperative registration data. Intraoperative CT imaging can be ergonomically efficient in a direct navigation system if the imaging device is accurately calibrated. A mobile-gantry CT scanner offers improved patient safety but presents technical challenges beyond those of a conventional scanner. The goal was to calibrate an optoelectronic navigation system to mobile-gantry CT with millimeter-level accuracy.

Methods

A custom calibration device was designed and manufactured. The calibrator contained optoelectronic markers for navigation reference and radio-opaque markers for CT reference. Calibrations were performed with a ceiling-mounted optoelectronic camera and with a portable camera, and then verified for accuracy.

Results

The component fiducial registration errors were extremely small, being 0.36 mm, with standard deviation of 0.16 mm, for the ceiling-mounted camera, and 0.05 mm, with standard deviation of 0.01 mm, for the portable camera. The net target registration error, measured as RMS deviation, was 1.58 mm for the ceiling-mounted camera and 0.73 mm for the portable camera.

Conclusions

High-accuracy calibration of the mobile-gantry CT scanner was possible from a single preoperative CT image. A ceiling-mounted optoelectronic camera, which is ergonomically preferable, marginally met the accuracy criteria. The portable camera, which is in widespread use for conventional navigated surgery, had deep sub-millimeter error. This study demonstrates that high accuracy is achievable and offers a system developer options to trade off accuracy and user convenience in direct surgical navigation.

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Notes

  1. Similarly to \(^{H}_{A}T\) and \(^{A}_{I}T\) mentioned earlier, the imaging transform \(^{Y}_{H}T\) was determined using DICOM header “meta-data.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Queen’s University, Kingston, K7L 3N6, Canada

    Anna Belkova & Randy E Ellis

  2. Department of Surgery, Queen’s University, Kingston, K7L 3N6, Canada

    David R Pichora & Randy E Ellis

Authors
  1. Anna Belkova
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  2. David R Pichora
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  3. Randy E Ellis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Randy E Ellis.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and animal rights

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors

Additional information

Supported in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Grant #CHRPJ–398995, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Grant #DG-43515.

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Belkova, A., Pichora, D.R. & Ellis, R.E. Calibration of mobile-gantry computed tomography for surgical navigation. Int J CARS 11, 521–527 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1302-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-015-1302-2

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