Grégoire Chevreau

Mapping of Transrectal Ultrasonographic Prostate Biopsies Quality Control and Learning Curve Assessment by Image Processing

Objective. Mapping of transrectal ultrasonographic (TRUS) prostate biopsies is of fundamental importance for either diagnostic purposes or the management and treatment of prostate cancer, but the localization of the cores seems inaccurate. Our objective was to evaluate the capacities of an operator to plan transrectal prostate biopsies under 2‐dimensional TRUS guidance using a registration algorithm to represent the localization of biopsies in a reference 3‐dimensional ultrasonographic volume. Methods. Thirty‐two patients underwent a series of 12 prostate biopsies under local anesthesia performed by 1 operator using a TRUS probe combined with specific third‐party software to verify that the biopsies were indeed conducted within the planned targets. Results. The operator reached 71% of the planned targets with substantial variability that depended on their localization (100% success rate for targets in the middle and right parasagittal parts versus 53% for targets in the left lateral base). Feedback from this system after each series of biopsies enabled the operator to significantly improve his dexterity over the course of time (first 16 patients: median score, 7 of 10 and cumulated median biopsy length in targets of 90 mm; last 16 patients, median score, 9 of 10 and a cumulated median length of 121 mm; P = .046). Conclusions. In addition to being a useful tool to improve the distribution of prostate biopsies, the potential of this system is above all the preparation of a detailed “map” of each patient showing biopsy zones without substantial changes in routine clinical practices.

BiopSym: a simulator for enhanced learning of ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy.

This paper describes a simulator of ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies for cancer diagnosis. When performing biopsy series, the clinician has to move the ultrasound probe and to mentally integrate the real-time bi-dimensional images into a three-dimensional (3D) representation of the anatomical environment. Such a 3D representation is necessary to sample regularly the prostate in order to maximize the probability of detecting a cancer if any. To make the training of young physicians easier and faster we developed a simulator that combines images computed from three-dimensional ultrasound recorded data to haptic feedback. The paper presents the first version of this simulator.

Fusion d'images: application au contrôle de la distribution des biopsies prostatiques.

This paper is about the application of a 3D ultrasound data fusion technique to the 3D reconstruction of prostate biopies in a reference volume. The method is introduced and its evaluation on a series of data coming from 15 patients is described.