Robust Catheter Tracking by Fusing Electromagnetic Tracking, Fiber Bragg Grating and Sparse Fluoroscopic Images

Abstract

Endovascular catheterization is an intervention which offers a low risk alternative to open surgery in many patients.Today's interventions rely heavily on fluoroscopic imaging to guide interventionalists. Fluoroscopy only produces 2D visualization of the catheter and also exposes both the patient and interventionalists to harmful radiation. Different approaches have been proposed to overcome the limitations of fluoroscopy. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based shape sensing is becoming popular to reconstruct the catheter shape. Multi-core fibers with parallel optical cores are interesting as they allow 3D shape reconstruction with a single fiber. A common issue with FBG-based shape sensing is its sensitivity to variations in twist. Even small amounts of twist can significantly impact the overall shape reconstruction accuracy. This work proposes a novel approach which combines electromagnetic tracking (EMT), FBG-based shape sensing, and sparse fluoroscopic images. The method provides realtime 3D visualization of the catheter without the need of continuous fluoroscopy. A unique feature of the proposed method is the selective use of imaging for dynamic twist-compensation of the FBG sensor. The proposed sensor-fusion method improved 3D reconstruction accuracy. Real-world in-vitro experiments promising results. For a catheter with an embedded fiber length of 170 mm, the proposed approach the 3D shape with a median root-mean-square (rms) error of 0.39 mm and an interquartile range of 0.10 mm in the 2D experiment in which the catheter was bent in a plane. A median rms error of 0.54 mm and an interquartile range of 0.07 mm were achieved in the 3D experiments.

Shape Reconstruction Processes for Interventional Application Devices: State of the Art, Progress, and Future Directions

“…Different techniques using fluoroscopic system combined either with FBG sensing or with both position and FBG sensing can be proposed to include the twist information. There are few papers (Ourak et al, 2021), (Ha et al, 2021) that proposed these kinds of strategies. But further development is necessary to bring these systems into the medical scenarios.…”

Applications and Development of Multi-Core Optical Fibers

“…Each channel simultaneously measures physical parameters at multiple positions. This continuous monitoring method is suitable for scenarios requiring real-time assessment of the overall system performance, making it applicable to a wide range of engineering applications such as oil well monitoring, geological exploration, pipeline safety monitoring [78][79][80][81][82][83], and aerospace applications [84][85][86][87][88] like wing monitoring and inertial navigation, as well as medical applications like medical robots and minimally invasive interventions [89][90][91][92][93]. The parallel channel structure of multi-core optical fibers provides an ideal platform for distributed sensing, allowing a single optical fiber to achieve efficient measurements at multiple points or along the entire length.…”

Characterization of a 3D Printed Endovascular Magnetic Catheter

“…The bending response of the magnetic catheter was recorded using a multi-core FBG fiber (FBGS ® , Geel, Belgium) placed inside the lumen of the magnetic catheter and attached to it at the distal end so as to prevent it from sliding within the magnetic catheter. The shape of the magnetic catheter was reconstructed using the FBG fiber [27] and the tip angle was calculated from it, as can be seen in Figure 2. When recording bending forces, a six-Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) force sensor (Nano17, ATI ® , Apex, CA, USA) was used.…”