Jia J, Liu F, Ren Q, Pei X, Cao R, Wu Y
Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Med Phys. 2012 Jun;39(6Part6):3660. doi: 10.1118/1.4734871.
Image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) is becoming increasingly important in the planning and delivery of radiotherapy. With the aim of implementing the key technologies in a flexible and integrated way in IGRT for accurate radiotherapy system (ARTS), a prototype system named as ARTS-IGRT was designed and completed to apply main principles in image-guided radiotherapy.
The basic workflow of the ARTS-IGRT software was completed with five functional modules including management of patient information, X-ray image acquisition, 2D/2D anatomy match, 2D/3D match as well as marker-based match. For 2D/2D match, an image registration method was proposed based on maximization of mutual information with multi-resolution and regions of interest. For the 2D/3D registration, optimizations have been employed to improve the existing digitally reconstructed radiography generation algorithm based on ray-casting, and also an image registration method based on implanted markers with different numbers was adopted for 3D/3D match. In additional, the kV X-Ray imaging on rail device was finished for a better internal anatomy image checking at any angle. Together with an infrared device, a positioning and tracking system was developed as well for accurate patient setup and motion monitoring during each treatment.
A lot of tests were carried out based on the head phantom to testify the availability of the improved algorithms. Compared with a set of controlled experiments adopted on the released commercial IGRT platform in the hospital, the functions of both software and hardware were testified comprehensively. The results showed a validity verification of ARTS-IGRT.
The accuracy and efficiency of ARTS-IGRT on both software and hardware proved to be valid. And also with a flexible and user-friendly interface it can meet the principles of clinical radiotherapy practice. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (11040606Q55) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30900386).
图像引导放射治疗（IGRT）在放射治疗的计划制定和实施过程中变得越来越重要。为了在精确放射治疗系统（ARTS）的IGRT中以灵活且集成的方式实现关键技术，设计并完成了一个名为ARTS-IGRT的原型系统，以应用图像引导放射治疗的主要原理。
ARTS-IGRT软件的基本工作流程通过五个功能模块完成，包括患者信息管理、X射线图像采集、二维/二维解剖匹配、二维/三维匹配以及基于标记物的匹配。对于二维/二维匹配，提出了一种基于多分辨率和感兴趣区域的互信息最大化的图像配准方法。对于二维/三维配准，采用了优化措施来改进现有的基于光线投射的数字重建射线照相生成算法，并且对于三维/三维匹配采用了基于不同数量植入标记物的图像配准方法。此外，完成了轨道式千伏X射线成像设备，以便在任何角度更好地检查内部解剖结构图像。连同红外设备，还开发了一个定位和跟踪系统，用于在每次治疗期间准确地进行患者摆位和运动监测。
基于头部模型进行了大量测试，以验证改进算法的可用性。与在医院已发布的商业IGRT平台上进行的一组对照实验相比，对软件和硬件的功能进行了全面验证。结果表明ARTS-IGRT有效。
ARTS-IGRT在软件和硬件方面的准确性和效率均被证明是有效的。并且其具有灵活且用户友好的界面，能够满足临床放射治疗实践的原则。得到安徽省自然科学基金（11040606Q55）和国家自然科学基金（30900386）的支持。
