Visualization of risk structures for interactive planning of image guided radiofrequency ablation of liver tumors
2009
Image guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is becoming a standard procedure as a minimally invasive method
for tumor treatment in the clinical routine. The visualization of pathological tissue and potential risk structures
like vessels or important organs gives essential support in image guided pre-interventional RFA planning. In this
work our aim is to present novel visualization techniques for interactive RFA planning to support the physician
with spatial information of pathological structures as well as the finding of trajectories without harming vitally
important tissue. Furthermore, we illustrate three-dimensional applicator models of different manufactures
combined with corresponding ablation areas in homogenous tissue, as specified by the manufacturers, to enhance
the estimated amount of cell destruction caused by ablation. The visualization techniques are embedded in
a workflow oriented application, designed for the use in the clinical routine. To allow a high-quality volume
rendering we integrated a visualization method using the fuzzy c-means algorithm. This method automatically
defines a transfer function for volume visualization of vessels without the need of a segmentation mask. However,
insufficient visualization results of the displayed vessels caused by low data quality can be improved using local
vessel segmentation in the vicinity of the lesion. We also provide an interactive segmentation technique of liver
tumors for the volumetric measurement and for the visualization of pathological tissue combined with anatomical
structures. In order to support coagulation estimation with respect to the heat-sink effect of the cooling blood
flow which decreases thermal ablation, a numerical simulation of the heat distribution is provided.
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