Improved Accuracy for the Sturm-Pastyr Localizer in the Presence of Image Noise.

Image guidance for frame-based stereotaxis is facilitated by incorporating three to four Sturm-Pastyr (SP) localizers into a stereotactic frame. Typically, each SP localizer enables the calculation of one set of [Formula: see text] coordinates in the three-dimensional coordinate system of the stereotactic frame, given three sets of [Formula: see text] coordinates created by the SP localizer in the two-dimensional coordinate system of a computed tomography (CT) image. Bouza and Brown propose formulas to calculate three sets of [Formula: see text] coordinates for each SP localizer. Monte Carlo (MC) simulation compares the accuracy of the new formulation to the accuracy of the original SP formulation that calculates only one set of [Formula: see text] coordinates for each SP localizer. Monte Carlo simulation reveals that the calculation of three sets of [Formula: see text] coordinates instead of only one set improves the accuracy of image guidance.