Liver tracking system utilizing template matching and energy function in high intensity focused ultrasound/radio frequency ablation therapy

Abstract

Monitoring and evaluating the therapeutic effects, in ultrasound images during HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultrasound) and RFA (Radio Frequency Ablation) therapies, are important. However, the common problem is the difficulty to monitor the progress and identify the positions of the focal lesion precisely in accordance with the progress of the treatment. This problem is caused by the movement of organs and the change of the textures information in ultrasound images. To overcome those problems, we have developed a novel method to track, follow, and monitor the focal lesion by the combination of the energy function method and the template matching method. The template matching method uses the characteristic texture information of the organ near the focal lesion. The energy function is implemented in order to reinforce the robustness of the tracking performance of the template matching method. Particularly, we evaluate the existing probability of the focal lesion considering the continuity of the movement and the relative distance from the surface of the liver. The estimated position of the focal lesion is obtained by minimizing the above mentioned energy function. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by comparing the novel proposed method and the conventional template matching method in terms of the tracking performance for the liver tumor during the real RFA treatments.