Weld Alistair, Dixon Luke, Anichini Giulio, Faoro Giovanni, Menciassi Arianna, Camp Sophie, Giannarou Stamatia
Hamlyn Centre, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Department of Imaging, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK.
Acta Neurochir (Wien). 2025 Jan 14;167(1):13. doi: 10.1007/s00701-024-06420-4.
Intraoperative ultrasound is becoming a common tool in neurosurgery. However, effective simulation methods are limited. Current, commercial, and homemade phantoms lack replication of anatomical correctness and texture complexity of brain and tumour tissue in ultrasound images.
We utilise ex-vivo brain tissue, as opposed to synthetic materials, to achieve realistic echogenic complexity and anatomical correctness. Agar, at 10-20% concentrate, is injected into brain tissue to simulate the tumour mass. A commercially available phantom was purchased for benchmarking.
Qualitative analysis is performed by experienced professionals, measuring the impact of the addition of agar and comparing it to the commercial phantom. Overall, the use of ex vivo tissue was deemed more accurate and representative, compared to the synthetic materials-based phantom, as it provided good visualisation of real brain anatomy and good contrast within tissue. The agar tumour correctly produced a region of higher echogenicity with slight diffusion along the margin and expected interaction with the neighbouring anatomy.
The proposed method for creating tumour-mimicking tissue in brain tissue is inexpensive, accurate, and simple. Beneficial for both the trainee clinician and the researcher. A total of 576 annotated images are made publicly available upon request.
术中超声正成为神经外科手术中的常用工具。然而，有效的模拟方法有限。目前，商业和自制的体模缺乏超声图像中脑和肿瘤组织解剖结构正确性及纹理复杂性的复制。
我们使用离体脑组织而非合成材料，以实现逼真的回声复杂性和解剖结构正确性。将10%-20%浓缩的琼脂注入脑组织以模拟肿瘤块。购买了一种市售体模用于基准测试。
由经验丰富的专业人员进行定性分析，测量添加琼脂的影响并将其与商业体模进行比较。总体而言，与基于合成材料的体模相比，使用离体组织被认为更准确且更具代表性，因为它能很好地显示真实脑解剖结构并在组织内产生良好的对比度。琼脂肿瘤正确地产生了一个回声较高的区域，沿边缘有轻微扩散，并与相邻解剖结构有预期的相互作用。
在脑组织中创建模拟肿瘤组织的所提出方法价格低廉、准确且简单。对实习临床医生和研究人员都有益。总共576张带注释的图像可根据要求公开提供。
