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- Title
Radiofrequency ablation of liver tumors: quantitative assessment of tumor coverage through CT image processing.
- Authors
Passera, Katia; Selvaggi, Sabrina; Scaramuzza, Davide; Garbagnati, Francesco; Vergnaghi, Daniele; Mainardi, Luca
- Abstract
Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is one of the most promising non-surgical treatments for hepatic tumors. The assessment of the therapeutic efficacy of RFA is usually obtained by visual comparison of pre- and post-treatment CT images, but no numerical quantification is performed. Methods: In this work, a novel method aiming at providing a more objective tool for the evaluation of RFA coverage is described. Image registration and segmentation techniques were applied to enable the visualization of the tumor and the corresponding post-RFA necrosis in the same framework. In addition, a set of numerical indexes describing tumor/necrosis overlap and their mutual position were computed. Results: After validation of segmentation step, the method was applied on a dataset composed by 10 tumors, suspected not to be completed treated. Numerical indexes showed that only two tumors were totally treated and the percentage of a residual tumor was in the range of 5.12%-35.92%. Conclusions: This work represents a first attempt to obtain a quantitative tool aimed to assess the accuracy of RFA treatment. The possibility to visualize the tumor and the correspondent post-RFA necrosis in the same framework and the definition of some synthetic numerical indexes could help clinicians in ameliorating RFA treatment.
- Subjects
RADIO frequency; ABLATION techniques; LIVER tumors; HEPATOCELLULAR carcinoma; NECROSIS
- Publication
BMC Medical Imaging, 2013, Vol 13, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1471-2342
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1186/1471-2342-13-3