Ultrasound Fusion for in-room interventional MRI procedures

Interventional MRI is limited in application due to the narrow access to the patient and the very large magnetic fields inside the MRI bore hole. Fusion imaging with pre-operative MRI and live intervention using an ultrasound system have been proposed and are feasible, but only use an "old" MRI scan and cannot update the MRI information live. We propose to combine new tracking technology (inside-out) directly mounted to a Ultrasound probe and perform a MRI / US fusion directly in the MRI suite. That would allow easy access to the patient, realtime imaging (US), and MRI updating if needed.