Study on method of organ section retention and tracking through deep learning in automated diagnostic and therapeutic robotics

Purpose In high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment of the kidney and liver, tracking the organs is essential because respiratory motions make continuous cauterization of the affected area difficult and may cause damage to other parts of the body. In this study, we propose a tracking system for rotational scanning, and propose and evaluate a method for estimating the angles of organs in ultrasound images. Methods We proposed AEMA, AEMAD, and AEMAD++ as methods for estimating the angles of organs in ultrasound images, using RUDS and a phantom to acquire 90-degree images of a kidney from the long-axis image to the short-axis image as a data set. Six datasets were used, with five for preliminary preparation and one for testing, while the initial position was shifted by 2 mm in the contralateral axis direction. The test data set was evaluated by estimating the angle using each method. Results The accuracy and processing speed of angle estimation for AEMA, AEMAD, and AEMAD++ were 23.8% and 0.33 FPS for AEMAD, 32.0% and 0.56 FPS for AEMAD, and 29.5% and 3.20 FPS for AEMAD++, with tolerance of ± 2.5 degrees. AEMAD++ offered the best speed and accuracy. Conclusion In the phantom experiment, AEMAD++ showed the effectiveness of tracking the long-axis image of the kidney in rotational scanning. In the future, we will add either the area of surrounding organs or the internal structure of the kidney as a new feature to validate the results.