Michael Moche MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Daniel Seider, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Ronan Flanagan, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Claire Bost, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Stephen John Payne MENG, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

David Patrick O'Neill MENG, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Mika Pollari MSc, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Tingying Peng, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

The validation of the simulation results for the patient specific data demonstrate that these tools have a potential use in future clinical trials.

CT-guided RFA is a minimally invasive form of tumour treatment, by placing a needle inside the malignancy and destroying it through intensive heating. A problem of this treatment is that heat transfer can not be monitored adequately with the risk of complications by over treatment and residual tumour by under treatment. The IMPPACT project (www.imppact.eu) has developed an planning and simulation system, for assisting radiologists to perform CT-guided RFA in malignant liver tumours. The consortium is funded by the European Commission FP7 ICT programme.

IMPPACT has developed a set of computer tools for patient specific treatment simulation and interventional training within an augmented reality environment. These include tools for segmentation and registration of the liver, vessels and tumour from CT data, new tissue heat transfer and cell death mathematical models which have been implemented into a computer simulation code, and visualisation tools which will interface directly with the clinician. The tools have been developed alongside of data from histological and animal experiments to ensure accuracy of the simulation. The results have then been validated against RFA lesions taken from patient specific data which is comprised of liver wall and vessel geometry and the ablated lesion shape/size. The predicted lesion is of similar size and shape as those measured from the experiments and the patient data (within 4 mm max. difference in radius). The maximum differences in the radius are localised and in general the shapes are a much closer match.

The simulation of the RFA protocol and the prediction of the cell death lesion for both experiments and patient data are very encouraging. The results from patient CT-images are especially promising as the clinical protocol is performed with much lower radiation dose and therefore less signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to the CT scans from animals.

Moche, M, Seider, D, Flanagan, R, Bost, C, Payne, S, O'Neill, D, Pollari, M, Peng, T, The Development of a Simulation Tool for Clinical Use in the Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA) of Liver Cancer.  Radiological Society of North America 2011 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 26 - December 2, 2011 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2011/11006073.html