REVIEW  BREAST SURGERY 

Minerva Chirurgica 2018 June;73(3):341-4

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4733.18.07659-9

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Augmented reality for breast imaging

Alberto RANCATI ¹ ✉, Claudio ANGRIGIANI ¹, Maurizio B. NAVA ^{2, 3}, Giuseppe CATANUTO ^{3, 4}, Nicola ROCCO ^{3, 5}, Fernando VENTRICE ¹, Julio DORR ¹

¹ Henry Moore Oncologic Institute (IOHM), University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; ² School of Plastic Surgery, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; ³ Group for REconstructive and Therapeutic Advancements (G.RE.T.A.), Milan, Naples, Catania, Italy; ⁴ Multidisciplinary Breast Unit, Cannizzaro Hospital, Catania, Italy; ⁵ Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Augmented reality (AR) enables the superimposition of virtual reality reconstructions onto clinical images of a real patient, in real time. This allows visualization of internal structures through overlying tissues, thereby providing a virtual transparency vision of surgical anatomy. AR has been applied to neurosurgery, which utilizes a relatively fixed space, frames, and bony references; the application of AR facilitates the relationship between virtual and real data. Augmented breast imaging (ABI) is described. Breast MRI studies for breast implant patients with seroma were performed using a Siemens 3T system with a body coil and a four-channel bilateral phased-array breast coil as the transmitter and receiver, respectively. Gadolinium was injected as a contrast agent (0.1 mmol/kg at 2 mL/s) using a programmable power injector. Dicom formatted images data from 10 MRI cases of breast implant seroma and 10 MRI cases with T1-2 N0 M0 breast cancer, were imported and transformed into augmented reality images. ABI demonstrated stereoscopic depth perception, focal point convergence, 3D cursor use, and joystick fly-through. ABI can improve clinical outcomes, providing an enhanced view of the structures to work on. It should be further studied to determine its utility in clinical practice.

KEY WORDS: Computer-assisted diagnosis - Diagnostic imaging - Breast neoplasms - Magnetic resonance imaging - Virtual reality