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Optical Flow-Based Tracking of Needles and Needle-Tip Localization Using Circular Hough Transform in Ultrasound Images

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Abstract

Image-guided interventions have become the standard of care for needle-based procedures. The success of the image-guided procedures depends on the ability to precisely locate and track the needle. This work is primarily focused on 2D ultrasound-based tracking of a hollow needle (cannula) that is composed of straight segments connected by shape memory alloy actuators. An in-plane tracking algorithm based on optical flow was proposed to track the cannula configuration in real-time. Optical flow is a robust tracking algorithm that can easily run on a CPU. However, the algorithm does not perform well when it is applied to the ultrasound images directly due to the intensity variation in the images. The method presented in this work enables using the optical flow algorithm on ultrasound images to track features of the needle. By taking advantage of the bevel tip, Circular Hough transform was used to accurately locate the needle tip when the imaging is out-of-plane. Through experiments inside tissue phantom and ex-vivo experiments in bovine kidney, the success of the proposed tracking methods were demonstrated. Using the methods presented in this work, quantitative information about the needle configuration is obtained in real-time which is crucial for generating control inputs for the needle and automating the needle insertion.

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Acknowledgments

The project described was supported by Award Number R01EB008713 from the National Institute Of Biomedical Imaging And Bioengineering. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute Of Biomedical Imaging And Bioengineering or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robotics, Automation and Medical Systems (RAMS) Laboratory, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Elif Ayvali & Jaydev P. Desai

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  1. Elif Ayvali
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  2. Jaydev P. Desai
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Correspondence to Elif Ayvali.

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Associate Editor Dan Elson oversaw the review of this article.

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Ayvali, E., Desai, J.P. Optical Flow-Based Tracking of Needles and Needle-Tip Localization Using Circular Hough Transform in Ultrasound Images. Ann Biomed Eng 43, 1828–1840 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1208-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1208-0

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