Axel Krieger1, Peter Guion2, Csaba Csoma1, Iulian I. Iordachita1, Anurag K. Singh2,3, Aradhana Kaushal2, Cynthia Menard4, Gabor Fichtinger1,5, Louis L. Whitcomb1
1Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2NCI - NIH-DHHS, Bethesda, MD, USA; 3Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, USA; 4Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada; 5Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
This paper reports on the development and preliminary clinical studies of a new system for MRI guided transrectal prostate interventions. This system employs a novel hybrid tracking method which reduces procedure time and simplifies deployment on different scanners while achieving millimeter needle placement accuracy. Transrectal MRI guided prostate interventions such as biopsies and gold marker placements inside a high-field MR scanner are reported in initial clinical trials, demonstrating accurate and fast needle targeting of the complete clinical target volume.