Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2021 Nov;2021:3729-3733. doi: 10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9629590.
The electrical impedance tomography (EIT) technology is an important medical imaging approach to show the electrical characteristics and the homogeneity of a tissue region noninvasively. Recently, this technology has been introduced to the Robot Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery (RAMIS) for assisting the detection of surgical margin with relevant clinical benefits. Nevertheless, most EIT technologies are based on a fixed multiple-electrodes probe which limits the sensing flexibility and capability significantly. In this study, we present a method for acquiring the EIT measurements during a RAMIS procedure using two already existing robotic forceps as electrodes. The robot controls the forceps tips to a series of predefined positions for injecting excitation current and measuring electric potentials. Given the relative positions of electrodes and the measured electric potentials, the spatial distribution of electrical conductivity in a section view can be reconstructed. Realistic experiments are designed and conducted to simulate two tasks: subsurface abnormal tissue detection and surgical margin localization. According to the reconstructed images, the system is demonstrated to display the location of the abnormal tissue and the contrast of the tissues' conductivity with an accuracy suitable for clinical applications.
电阻抗断层成像（EIT）技术是一种重要的医学成像方法，可无创地显示组织区域的电学特性和均匀性。最近，这项技术已被引入机器人辅助微创手术（RAMIS）中，以协助检测手术边缘，具有相关的临床益处。然而，大多数 EIT 技术基于固定的多电极探头，这极大地限制了感应的灵活性和能力。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种在 RAMIS 手术过程中使用两个已有的机器人夹作为电极获取 EIT 测量的方法。机器人控制夹的尖端到达一系列预定义的位置，以注入激励电流和测量电位。根据电极的相对位置和测量的电位，可以重建截面视图中电导率的空间分布。设计并进行了真实实验来模拟两个任务：皮下异常组织检测和手术边缘定位。根据重建的图像，该系统被证明可以显示异常组织的位置和组织电导率的对比度，其准确性适合临床应用。
