Reduction of Angularly-Varying-Data Truncation in C-Arm CBCT Imaging.

C-arm cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has been used increasingly as an imaging tool for yielding 3D anatomical information about the subjects in surgical and interventional procedures. In the clinical applications, the limited field-of-view (FOV) of C-arm CBCT can lead to significant data truncation, resulting in image artifacts that can obscure low contrast tumor embedded within soft-tissue background, thus limiting the utility of C-arm CBCT. The truncation issue can become serious as most of the surgical and interventional procedures would involve devices and tubes that are placed outside the FOV of C-arm CBCT and thus can engender angularly-varying-data truncation. Existing methods may not be adequately applicable to dealing with the angularly-varying truncation. In this work, we seek to reduce truncation artifacts by tailoring optimization-based reconstruction directly from truncated data, without performing pre-reconstruction data compensation, collected from physical phantoms and human subjects. The reconstruction problem is formulated as a constrained optimization program in which a data-derivative-ℓ2-norm fidelity is included for effectively suppressing image artifacts caused by the angularly-varying-data truncation, and the generic Chambolle-Pock algorithm is tailored to solve the optimization program. The results of the study suggest that an appropriately designed optimization-based reconstruction can be exploited for yielding images with reduced artifacts caused by angularly-varying-data truncation.

Trauma Pod: a semi-automated telerobotic surgical system.

BACKGROUND: The Trauma Pod (TP) vision is to develop a rapidly deployable robotic system to perform critical acute stabilization and/or surgical procedures, autonomously or in a teleoperative mode, on wounded soldiers in the battlefield who might otherwise die before treatment in a combat hospital could be provided. METHODS: In the first phase of a project pursuing this vision, a robotic TP system was developed and its capability demonstrated by performing selected surgical procedures on a patient phantom. RESULTS: The system demonstrates the feasibility of performing acute stabilization procedures with the patient being the only human in the surgical cell. The teleoperated surgical robot is supported by autonomous robotic arms and subsystems that carry out scrub-nurse and circulating-nurse functions. Tool change and supply delivery are performed automatically and at least as fast as performed manually by nurses. Tracking and counting of the supplies is performed automatically. The TP system also includes a tomographic X-ray facility for patient diagnosis and two-dimensional (2D) fluoroscopic data to support interventions. The vast amount of clinical protocols generated in the TP system are recorded automatically. CONCLUSIONS: Automation and teleoperation capabilities form the basis for a more comprehensive acute diagnostic and management platform that will provide life-saving care in environments where surgical personnel are not present.