Adaptive visualization using the annealing M-estimator

Abstract

This paper presents an adaptive visualization for helping the needle insertion task for RF liver ablation under CT-fluoroscopy (CT-fluoro) guidance. It shows slices of the 3D CT-volume that are resulting from the out-of-plane motion parameters along weighted isosurfaces in the convergence basin of the employed cost function. The visualization is coupled to the uncertainty in estimating the deformation of the liver and brings much more information than a single registered slice. We evaluated the proposed visualization with three experienced interventional radiologists and they pointed out that such visualization revealing the neighborhood with the belonging structures, like vessels and lesion spread, will help the needle guidance.