Novel Biopsy Robot Could Improve Disease Diagnosis

An innovative biopsy robot under development combines features of both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound (US), aiming to improve the identification of breast cancer and muscle diseases.

Researchers at the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands), Siemens (Munich, Germany), KUKA (Augsburg, Germany), and other companies and institutions participating in the MRI and Ultrasound Robotic Assisted Biopsy (MURAB) project joined to build a robot that combines the best aspects of an MRI scan with cheaper technologies, such as an US sensor and a pressure sensor, with the potential to drastically improve the clinical workflow by precise targeting of small lesions visible under MRI, but not under US.

The system will be based on a robotically steered US transducer with acoustically transparent force sensing, which will be autonomously moved to optimally acquire volumetric and elastographic data. Thanks to an innovative technique, the system will first optimally register the acquired volume to the MRI scan. Once completed, the radiologist can then select the target lesion on the MRI; the robot will then steer the instrument to the exact desired location by adapting the insertion angle on the basis of real time US measurements; tissue deformations will be predicted based on the acquired elastographic measurements.

“Patients need to spend just 15 to 20 minutes in the MRI scanner; this produces an offline MRI image that you can combine, during the biopsy, with online images from the ultrasound sensor,” said UT researcher and PhD candidate Foad Sojoodi Farimani, MSc. “One of the biggest challenges in this project is to use the precise MRI image to locate suspicious tissue in the much more indistinct ultrasound image.”

The technologies developed within MURAB will also have the potential to improve other clinical procedures, such as breast cancer diagnostics and muscle disease diagnostics.

Related Links:
University of Twente
Siemens
KUKA