J. Gardiazabal, T. Reichl, A. Okur, T. Lasser, N. Navab First flexible robotic intra-operative nuclear imaging for image-guided surgery Information Processing in Computer Assisted Interventions (IPCAI), Heidelberg, Germany, June 26, 2013 (bib)
	Functional imaging systems for intra-operative use, like freehand SPECT, have been successfully demonstrated in the past, with remarkable results. These results, even though very positive in some cases, tend to suffer from high variability depending on the expertise of the operator. A well trained operator can produce datasets that will lead to a reconstruction that can rival a conventional SPECT machine, while an untrained one will not be able to achieve such results. In this paper we present a flexible robotic functional nuclear imaging setup for intra-operative use, replacing the operator in the scanning process with a robotic arm. The robot can assure good coverage of the area of interest, thus producing a consistent scanning pattern that can be reproduced with high accuracy, and provides the option to compensate for radioactive decay. We show first results on phantoms demonstrating the feasibility of the setup to perform 3D nuclear imaging suitable for the operating room.
	This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each authors copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.