Improving Ultrasound Transducer Control and Tumor Targeting for 3-D Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging Guided Prostate Biopsy

Identification and grading of prostate cancer (PCa) is important for determining a proper treatment plan. One current PCa diagnostic procedure involves transrectal B-mode ultrasound for systematic biopsy of the prostate to determine whether cancer is present. The multi-focal nature of prostate cancer, and the difficulty visualizing lesions with ultrasound B-mode, often necessitates 10 or more biopsy samples to determine if a patient has PCa. Even after biopsy the extent and severity of the disease may not be fully understood due to the random sampling afforded by systematic sampling. 3-D acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging has demonstrated sensitivity to prostate cancer lesions and their location within the imaged volume. For this study, a graphical user interface was developed to facilitate 3-D ARFI volume acquisitions in the prostate. Additionally, a 3-D Slicer targeting module was created to relate positions in the scanned volume to biopsy sampling locations. Integrating these software tools with ultrasound imaging enabled biopsy targeting with target registration errors of less than 2mm in a prostate mimicking phantom.