Robotic strain imaging for monitoring thermal ablation of liver

Abstract

This report describes our initial in vitro results with robotically-assisted strain imaging for intraoperative monitoring of hepatic tumor thermal ablation. First, we demonstrate a strong correlation between thermal ablation of liver tissue and changes in elastic properties. Second, we present an experimental environment to provide controlled robotically-assisted compression of liver tissue with concurrent ultrasonic reading. Third, we present B-mode strain images of thermally treated liver samples, where the strain images corresponded to the boundaries of histologically confirmed necrosis. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.