A large collaborative effort between PULSE Lab members and collaborators at the School of Medicine culminated with a journal paper that was recently accepted to IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. The paper is entitled, In vivo demonstration of photoacoustic image guidance and robotic visual servoing for cardiac catheter-based interventions.
This work is the first known in vivo demonstration of any type of cardiac photoacoustic application, including an in vivo example that pairs robotic assistance with photoacoustic image guidance to find and constantly visualize cardiac catheter tips. We also show the first known photoacoustic images of cardiac catheter tips within an in vivo heart. These catheter tips were visualized at depths as large as 9 cm from the chest wall with photoacoustic imaging in cases where ultrasound imaging failed (due to the similar echogenicity of catheter tips and nearby cardiac tissue). Results show promise toward reducing the use of fluoroscopy during cardiac catheter-based interventions, which is desirable because fluoroscopy exposes both patients and operators to harmful ionizing radiation.
Citation: Graham M, Assis F, Allman D, Wiacek A, González E, Gubbi M, Dong J, Hou H, Beck S, Chrispin J, Bell MAL, In vivo demonstration of photoacoustic image guidance and robotic visual servoing for cardiac catheter-based interventions, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (accepted) [pdf]