Organ motion tracking in USgFUS - a feasibility study using sonoelastography

This paper presents a study of near real-time ultrasound image guidance technique for motion tracking of the targets such as tumors during a focus ultrasound surgery. A 2D ultrasound based motion tracking system was designed and evaluated. A robot was used to control the position of the focused ultrasound device to be focused at the target. The target position was extracted from a real-time ultrasound video and tracked by the robot. The accuracy and precision of the tracking system were characterised using an egg-white gel phantom. Experiments have been conducted and results show sufficient efficiency of the image guidance algorithm. A further feasibility study using ultrasound strain elastography was conducted to assess the FUS (focused ultrasound surgery) sonication. Sonication experiments on tissue mimicking material, fresh sheep liver and Thiel sheep liver were conducted to evaluate the assessment performance of ultrasound strain elastography. This work provides a potential to combine the real time ultrasound image motion tracking and ultrasound strain elastography monitoring.