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.
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.
Development of tool to assign tissue acoustic properties:
Related project from 35th NA-MIC Project Week: VR for Birth Delivery Training
Training system for forceps-assisted delivery developed in 3D Slicer by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid: VIDEO
García-Sevilla, M. et al. (2018). Performance Evaluation to Improve Training in Forceps-Assisted Delivery. In: , et al. OR 2.0 Context-Aware Operating Theaters, Computer Assisted Robotic Endoscopy, Clinical Image-Based Procedures, and Skin Image Analysis. CARE CLIP OR 2.0 ISIC 2018 2018 2018 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11041. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01201-4_9
Sherer, D.M., Miodovnik, M., Bradley, K.S. and Langer, O. (2002), Intrapartum fetal head position II: comparison between transvaginal digital examination and transabdominal ultrasound assessment during the second stage of labor. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol, 19: 264-268. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-0705.2002.00656.x