Publicaties

Musculoskeletal disorders present significant socio-economic challenges globally, requiring innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Current intraoperative imaging techniques, including computed tomography (CT) and radiography, involve high radiation exposure and limited soft tissue visualization. Ultrasound (US) offers a non-invasive, real-time alternative but is underutilized intraoperatively, as it is highly observer-dependent. US ...

PURPOSE: During image-guided therapy, cardiologists use 2-dimensional (2D) imaging modalities to navigate the catheters, resulting in a loss of depth perception. Augmented reality (AR) is being explored to overcome the challenges, by visualizing patient-specific 3D models or 3D shape of the catheter. However, when this 3D content is presented on a 2D display, important depth information may be lost. This paper proposes a hybrid 3D AR ...

Robotic ultrasound (US) scanning of the spine is becoming an increasingly viable radiation-free alternative to CT scans and fluoroscopy. However, due to the complex shape of the vertebra, three-dimensional (3D) US reconstructions generated from two-dimensional (2D) US scans often lack important anatomic information, such as the spinous process. This paper investigates scanning strategies that reorient the probe during US scanning to improve ...

Ultrasound (US) with 3D reconstruction is being explored to offer a radiation-free approach to visualizing anatomical structures. Such a method could be useful for navigating and assisting minimally invasive spine surgery where direct sight on the surgical site is absent. During surgery, the pre-operative CT model and surgical plans are registered to the patient's anatomy by using intra-operative US reconstruction. However, accurate and ...

Ultrasound (US) imaging enables the evaluation of vascular structures in real time, and it can provide morphological and pathological information during US-guided procedures. Automatic prediction of vascular structure boundaries can help clinicians in locating and measuring target structures more accurately and efficiently. Most existing US segmentation methods use per-pixel classification or regression, which require post-processing to obtain ...

Endovascular intervention is a minimally invasive method for treating cardiovascular diseases. Although fluoroscopy, known for real-time catheter visualization, is commonly used, it exposes patients and physicians to ionizing radiation and lacks depth perception due to its 2D nature. To address these limitations, a study was conducted using teleoperation and 3D visualization techniques. This in-vitro study involved the use of a robotic catheter ...

OBJECTIVE: Navigation through tortuous and deformable vessels using catheters with limited steering capability underscores the need for reliable path planning. State-of-the-art path planners do not fully account for the deformable nature of the environment. METHODS: This work proposes a robust path planner via a learning from demonstrations method, named Curriculum Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (C-GAIL). This path planning framework ...