Use of Needle Track Detection to Quantify the Displacement of Stranded Seeds Following Prostate Brachytherapy

We aim to compute the movement of permanent stranded implant brachytherapy radioactive sources (seeds) in the prostate from the planned seed distribution to the intraoperative fluoroscopic distribution, and then to the postimplant computed tomography (CT) distribution. We present a novel approach to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on medical imaging 2012-03, Vol.31 (3), p.738-748
Main Authors: Lobo, J. R., Moradi, M., Chng, N., Dehghan, E., Morris, W. J., Fichtinger, G., Salcudean, S. E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Brachytherapy
Brachytherapy - instrumentation
Brachytherapy - methods
Brachytherapy - standards
Computed tomography
Computed-tomography (CT)
Cost function
Databases, Factual
Displacement
Fluoroscopy
Humans
Image reconstruction
Implantation
Implants
Male
minimum cost network flow
Movement
Needles
Prostate
prostate brachytherapy
Prostatic Neoplasms - radiotherapy
Radiation therapy
Radiographic Image Enhancement - methods
Registers
Reproducibility of Results
Seeds
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
X-ray fluoroscopy
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Summary:We aim to compute the movement of permanent stranded implant brachytherapy radioactive sources (seeds) in the prostate from the planned seed distribution to the intraoperative fluoroscopic distribution, and then to the postimplant computed tomography (CT) distribution. We present a novel approach to matching the seeds in these distributions to the plan by grouping the seeds into needle tracks. First, we identify the implantation axis using a sample consensus algorithm. Then, we use a network flow algorithm to group seeds into their needle tracks. Finally, we match the needles from the three stages using both their transverse plane location and the number of seeds per needle. We validated our approach on eight clinical prostate brachytherapy cases, having a total of 871 brachytherapy seeds distributed in 193 needles. For the intraoperative and postimplant data, 99.31% and 99.41% of the seeds were correctly assigned, respectively. For both the preplan to fluoroscopic and fluoroscopic to CT registrations, 100% of the needles were correctly matched. We show that there is an average intraoperative seed displacement of 4.94 ± 2.42 mm and a further 2.97 ± 1.81 mm of postimplant movement. This information reveals several directional trends and can be used for quality control, treatment planning, and intraoperative dosimetry that fuses ultrasound and fluoroscopy.
ISSN:0278-0062
1558-254X
DOI:10.1109/TMI.2011.2178254