Design And Simulation Of An Accurate Breast Biopsy System

Abstract

Core needle biopsy is a non-invasive technique for confirming breast and prostate cancer. Over the years, several non-real time image guided systems have been developed to guide the needle to the target lesion/tumor. Frequently used methods are those employing x-ray, ultrasound, MRI or x-ray fluoroscopy to guide the needle during biopsy. However, these methods suffer from the disadvantages that they are non-real time or the imaging technique is two dimensional or ionizing. Our broad objective is to develop a visually guided, haptic assisted breast biopsy system (henceforth called ViHAB) using real time 3D ultrasound imaging and haptic guidance. The system will help the radiologist in identifying target micro-calcifications and provide real time guidance for core needle biopsy. The ViHAB simulator, the topic of this thesis, being developed at the Virtual Environment Laboratory is capable of reading and displaying three dimensional ultrasound images, keep track of micro-calcification in near real time in a sequence of images as well as provide haptic guidance to a virtual needle via a force feedback joystick.