Augmented Reality Guidance for Needle Biopsies: A Randomized, Controlled Trial in Phantoms

We report the results of a randomized, controlled tnal to compare the accuracy of standard ultrasound-guided needle biopsy to biopsies performed using a 3D Augmented Reality (AR) guidance system. Fifty core biopsies of breast phantoms were conducted by a board-certified radiologist, with each set of five biopsies randomly assigned to one of the methods. The raw ultrasound data from each biopsy was recorded. Another board-certified radiologist, blinded to the actual biopsy guidance mechanism, evaluated the ultrasound recordings and determined the distance of the biopsy from the ideal position. A repeated measures analysis of variance indicated that the head-mounted display method led to a statistically significantly smaller mean deviation from the desired target than did the CRT display method. (2.48mm for control versus 1.62mm for augmented reality, p < 0.02). This result suggests that AR systems can offer improved accuracy over traditional biopsy guidance methods.

[1]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Technologies for augmented reality systems: realizing ultrasound-guided needle biopsies , 1996, SIGGRAPH.

[2]  Hong Chen,et al.  Observing a volume rendered fetus within a pregnant patient , 1994, Proceedings Visualization '94.

[3]  Anthony S. Wojcik,et al.  Afips Conference Proceedings , 1985 .

[4]  Mark A. Livingston,et al.  Superior augmented reality registration by integrating landmark tracking and magnetic tracking , 1996, SIGGRAPH.

[5]  Ivan E. Sutherland,et al.  A head-mounted three dimensional display , 1968, AFIPS Fall Joint Computing Conference.

[6]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Real-time incremental visualization of dynamic ultrasound volumes using parallel BSP trees , 1996, Proceedings of Seventh Annual IEEE Visualization '96.

[7]  Ronald Azuma,et al.  A survey of augmented reality" Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments , 1997 .

[8]  G. Stetten,et al.  Overlaying ultrasonographic images on direct vision. , 2001, Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

[9]  Ryutarou Ohbuchi,et al.  Merging virtual objects with the real world: seeing ultrasound imagery within the patient , 1992, SIGGRAPH.

[10]  David J. Hawkes,et al.  Stereo Augmented Reality in the Surgical Microscope , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[11]  Mark A. Livingston,et al.  Managing latency in complex augmented reality systems , 1997, SI3D.

[12]  Ronald Azuma,et al.  A Survey of Augmented Reality , 1997, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[13]  Henry Fuchs,et al.  Dynamic virtual convergence for video see-through head-mounted displays: maintaining maximum stereo overlap throughout a close-range work space , 2001, Proceedings IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Augmented Reality.

[14]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Towards Performing Ultrasound-Guided Needle Biopsies from within a Head-Mounted Display , 1996, VBC.