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Noncontact measurement of puncture needle angle using augmented reality technology in computed tomography-guided biopsy: stereotactic coordinate design and accuracy evaluation

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

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to introduce a new handheld device application for noncontact and real-time measurements of the angle of a biopsy needle using augmented reality (AR) image tracking technology. Furthermore, this study discusses the methods used to optimize the related coordinate design for computed tomography (CT)-guided biopsy procedures.

Methods

An in-house noncontact angle measurement application was developed using AR platform software. This application tracks the position and direction of a printed texture located on the handle of a biopsy needle. The needle direction was factorized into two directions: tilting or rolling. Tilting was defined following the tilting of the CT gantry so that rolling would match the angle measured in CT images. In this study, CT-guided tumor biopsies were performed using a conventional guiding method with a protractor. The true value of needle rolling was measured by CT imaging and was then compared to the rolling measurement provided by the application developed in the current study using a mobile phone.

Results

This study enrolled 18 cases of tumor biopsy (five renal tumors, five lung tumors, four retroperitoneal tumors, one soft tissue tumor, one thyroid tumor, one mesentery tumor, and one bone tumor). The measurement accuracy was − 0.2°, which was the average difference between AR and CT, and the measurement precision was 2.0°, which was the standard deviation of the difference between AR and CT measurements. The coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.996.

Conclusion

The noncontact needle measurement software using AR technology is sufficiently reliable for use in clinical settings. A real-time display of the needle angle that also shows the direction of the CT gantry is expected to enable a simple biopsy needle navigation.

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Data availability

The AR Needle Guide app is available in AppStore for iOS devices (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1516215649).

Code availability

The formula with C# code for Unity is provided in the Discussion section.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) Grant #18K07648.

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) Grant #18K07648.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Tokyo Women’s Medical University, 8-1, Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8666, Japan

    Kazufumi Suzuki, Satoru Morita, Kenji Endo, Takahiro Yamamoto & Shuji Sakai

Authors
  1. Kazufumi Suzuki
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  2. Satoru Morita
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  3. Kenji Endo
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  4. Takahiro Yamamoto
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  5. Shuji Sakai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazufumi Suzuki.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the institutional review board, with a waiver of documented informed consent from patients. This was an observational investigation without AR interventions. Patient identifiers were removed, and this study was conducted following the Helsinki Declaration.

Consent to participate

The research title was published on an institutional website, and the patients were allowed to opt-out following institutional regulations.

Consent for publication

Written consent was not required because this study did not involve any interventions following hospital regulations and domestic laws.

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Suzuki, K., Morita, S., Endo, K. et al. Noncontact measurement of puncture needle angle using augmented reality technology in computed tomography-guided biopsy: stereotactic coordinate design and accuracy evaluation. Int J CARS 17, 745–750 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-022-02572-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-022-02572-9

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