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NA-MIC Project Weeks

Fetal Ultrasound Simulation for Delivery Training

Key Investigators

Clinical collaboration

Medical Background

Intrapartum assessment of the fetal head position and pelvic station are essential in the management of labor. Precise knowledge of these parameters will assist in the correct identification of normal vs. abnormal labor patterns, and among the latter indicate when medical or operative intervention may be required.

Identifying the fetal position is specially important during forceps-assisted delivery. Forceps are slick metal objects that resemble big spoons or tongs. They are contoured to fit the baby’s head and are placed around the infant’s head. Depending on the position of the fetus’s head, the techniques and manouvers used by obstetricians are different.

Ultrasound imaging is commonly used to estimate the fetal position. In a first step, the clinician identifies the fetus spine using ultrasound to infer the position of the fetus body. Then, the occiput is localized to determine the exact position of the head.

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Project Description

The goal of this project is to generate fake ultrasound images that can be used during medical training. These images should be as realistic as possible to enable trainees to correctly identify the fetus position in the simulated ultrasound images.

PLUS Toolkit already offers a tool to generate fake ultrasound images based on 3D models. However, a general problem is that one needs to provide acoustic properties of each 3D model/tissue for the ultrasound image generation.

Objective

  1. Test ultrasound simulation tool offered by PLUS Toolkit and visualize simulated images and models in 3D Slicer.
  2. Create a tool that automatically assigns acoustic properties to each 3D model and generates the according config file for the PLUS ultrasound image generation server.
  3. Calculate acoustic properties for fetal ultrasound simulation and improve realism of simulated ultrasound images.
  4. Discuss ultrasound simulation technology with the 3D Slicer community. Other methods? AI?

Approach and Plan

Development of tool to assign tissue acoustic properties:

  1. Use the Total Segmentator to create the 3D models with assigned organ definition based on CT data.
  2. Create and define a lookup table (LUT) that assigns the accoustic propeerties to each organ label.
  3. Develop a tool or module that generates the config file based on the models and the LUT.

References