Participants:Peter Cech, Philippe Cattin, Gabor Székely
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Laboratory for Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies (LTNT), ETH Zürich |
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Measurement and Control Laboratory (IMRT), ETH Zürich
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Biophysics Group, ETH Zürich
Neuroradiology, University Hospital Zürich
Bioengineering, Imperial College for Science, Technology and Medicine, London
CFD Research Corporation, Hunstville AL, USA
Institute of Anatomy, University of Bern |
Objective:
This interdisciplinary research project aims at bringing together the
skills and know-how of an international group of experts for realizing
a multifaceted investigation of the cerebrospinal fluid flow and
transport phenomena within the cranial cavity and part of the spinal
cord. The part held at the Computer Vision Laboratory deals with
extraction of the cerebrospinal fluid space geometry. A generic model of
the ventricular system's geometry, that will be used in development
of cerebrospinal fluid flow simulation, is prepared in the first stage.
Subsequent efforts are aimed at developing a semiautomatic process
for extracting the patient-specific cerebrospinal fluid space geometry.
Both the acquisition of the initial data and the data processing
algorithm must be adapted to the requirements of the daily clinical
praxis.
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Objective:
Recent developments in robotic technology have enhanced surgical
precision while operating through less invasive approaches in various
surgical subspecialties. However, it is not surprising that use of
robotics for performing coronary artery bypass surgery has been slow
because of the additional challenge of perpetual cardiac motion, and the
precision demanded for a graft to coronary artery anastomosis. It is
herein that adding further intelligence to robotic control could
probably help. The remaining motion after coronary stabilization,
forces the surgeon to adapt to the movement of the heart; and this could
be responsible for the inferior quality of anastomosis and increased
operative time.
Objective:
Hysteroscopy is the second most often performed endoscopic procedure in
gynaecology and is mostly part of any specialization program for gynaecology.
It is to be expected that training on a reasonably realistic simulator could substantially contribute to reduce the rate of complications. The simulator
will allow realistic real-time visualization of the intervention scene
including changes due to surgical actions and the control of the hydrometra
by manipulating the liquid influx and efflux as well as realistic tactile sensation.
Objective:
Vessel segmentation is a key component of every radiological diagnostic system. However, the lack of robust methods still forces radiologists to spend a considerable amount of their time to manually segment and analyze the vessels in CT or MR data.
Objective:
It is well known that haptic devices can enhance the perception of reality
in virtual environments. The touch and force sensation is an important
component of surgical simulators, which are currently widely developed at many
research centers and companies to help the doctors to acquire special
skills needed in the surgery.
Objective:
Hysteroscopy is the visualisation of the inner surface of the uterus performed by inserting both the endoscope and the surgical instrument through the cervix into the uterus. Therapeutic hysteroscopy is associated with a certain number of known serious complications, that can be best addressed through repetitive training by the surgeon. A hysteroscopic virtual-reality surgical simulator that provides realistic and configurable training environment is seen as the ideal solution to providing this repetitive training.
Objective:
Segmentation of organs is an important and very difficult step in
the process of medical image analysis. The main effect of the fast
development of medical imaging techniques (and especially MRI) is
the huge amount of data that becomes available and must be analyzed
by the physicians. In this context, tools for automatic segmentation
are extremely important. This project aims for developing such a tool
which will allow automatic segmentation of the patellar cartilage of
the knee joint from multi-slice magnetic resonance images, taken under
clinically applicable conditions. The considered approach is to combine
local feature analysis methods with a model based approach, allowing
robust segmentation even in the unavoidable presence of noise and
artifacts.
Objective:
The Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) is a disease of the
placenta. It affects identical monochorionic (shared placenta) twins
during pregnancy where blood passes from one baby to the other through
abnormal vascular connections within their shared placenta. One baby,
the recipient twin, gets too much blood that might overload his
cardiovascular system and might die from heart failure. The other baby,
the donor twin, does not get enough blood and may die from severe
anemia. The tragedy is that these babies are healthy. The problem is in
the placenta. The death rate for twins who develop TTTS at mid-pregnancy
may be as high as 80 to 100 percent. Babies may die in utero, at birth
from prematurity or years later from the effects of TTTS. Those who
survive suffer from many serious problems, including cerebral palsy.
Objective:
In the past few years virtual reality based systems have been proposed and realized for many medical interventions. These simulators have the potential to provide training on a wide variety of pathologies. So far, realistic generation of anatomical variance and pathologies have not been treated as a specific issue. It has to be possible for a physician to generate an individual surgical scene for every training session.
Objective:
Diagnosis of medical ailments is increasingly done through CT (Computer
Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) images. These images
are constantly improving in resolution and quality. However, due to the
3-Dimensional nature of these images, it is often hard not to become
confused and overwhelmed by the displayed information. We are working on
a program which renders 3D CT or MRI images to the screen using
volume-rendering. Intelligent haptic (touch) feedback is provided from
the data, allowing the user to "feel" as well as see the data (using the
Sensable Phantom Device: www.sensable.com). This includes a technique
which guides the user along the path of the intestine using Euclidean
Distance Maps to calculate the forces. The user feels a force pushing
the cursor towards the center of the intestine, allowing for fast and
easy navigation along the winding turns of the intestine. This in turn
allows the segmentation (separation from the remaining data) of the
intestine by the drawing of a center-line, and the diagnosis of polyps
inside the intestine.
Objective:
Angiogenesis, the growth of vascular structures, is an extremely
complex biological process which has long puzzled scientists. Better
physiological understanding of this phenomenon could result in many
useful medical applications, from virtual surgery simulators for
medical interventions, to cancer therapy, where e.g. influence of
certain factors on the system could be simulated. Although there is
a lot of research being done on blood circulatory systems and many
models with high level of mathematical sophistication have already
been proposed, most of them offer very modest visual quality and
not satisfactory physiological insight for the
resultant vascularities. This work is a proposition of a
macroscopic model allowing for generation of various vascular
systems with high graphical fidelity for simulation purposes.
Objective:
In a realistic hysteroscopic simulator special interest has to be devoted
to the simulation of intra-uterine bleeding, influencing the visibility
of the surgical scene, until the correct adjustment of the inflow and outflow
valves on the instrument are performed by the surgeon.
