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Haptic-based navigation for the virtual bronchoscopy

Abstract:

In order to help in the diagnosis of peripheral lung lesions, this paper presents a virtual bronchoscopy system that allows the navigation within a 3D reconstruction of the tracheobronchial tree using a haptic device whose permitted motions mimics those done with the real bronchoscope, and that is able to feedback forces resulting from contacts with the walls. The system reconstructs the 3D model from CT images, and computes a path from the trachea to the peripheral target to be analyzed in order to guide the exploration. The execution of the virtual bronchoscopy with the proposed system, prior to the execution of the real one, may increase the confidence of pulmonologists and is expected to result in an improvement in the final lung cancer diagnosis. © 2011 IFAC.