AR Platform Fluoroscopically Visualizes Lung Lesions

A novel imaging technology creates a fluoroscopic augmented reality (AR) that can reveal invisible lesions and pathways.

The Body Vision Medical (Ramat Hasharon, Israel) LungVision platform is a powerful imaging device intended for navigation bronchoscopy that provides real-time navigation and guidance to a planned target. Seamless plug and play integration with standard imaging equipment and tools allows pre-surgical planning of target and pathway by segmentation of previously acquired three dimensional (3D) computerized tomography (CT) datasets, and overlay of these datasets with live X-ray images of the same anatomy.

The physician can thus guide endobronchial tools towards the target area of interest inside the patient’s lungs via catheter navigation for instant access to early stage nodules. System components include a laptop, a video capture box, the LungVision Board, and LungVision software, a PC based application suite that provide 2D and 3D medical image and realtime video image acquisition and visualization of lung anatomy. The system does not include fluoroscope, bronchoscope, radial endobronchial ultrasound (R-EBUS), or external monitor devices.

“Our technology is a major step towards winning the battle against lung cancer. We are targeting small pulmonary nodules that if diagnosed early, can be resected to cure the disease,” said Dorian Averbuch, CEO of Body Vision. “While seamlessly integrated into the standard bronchoscopy suite and workflow, our proprietary technology provides step-by-step guidance through planning, navigation, and lesion localization during biopsy, all with minimal learning curve.”

“Body Vision provides a great tool that has changed the way we approached peripheral nodules. Once the technology has guided us to the lesion, we confirm the lesion's relationship to the airway with radial-EBUS. We then use our off-the-shelf biopsy instruments via the LungVision catheter,” said D. Kyle Hogarth, MD, director of bronchoscopy at the University of Chicago (IL, USA). “The augmented fluoro image, integrated with the radial EBUS images, allows us to obtain tissue samples with continuous real-time confirmation of location. The beauty of it all is how simple and elegant the technology is.”

AR is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input. It is related to a general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified--possibly even diminished rather than augmented--by a computer. As a result, the technology can enhance the perception of reality.

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