2K-4 Ultrasonic Imaging of Brachytherapy Seeds Based on Singular Spectrum Analysis

Ultrasound-guided brachytherapy using small titanium-shelled radioactive seeds is an effective means of treating prostate cancer. Unfortunately, implantation using needles inserted transperitoneally causes gland movement and distortion, which often results in dosimetry errors. If actual seed locations could be determined in the operating room, then corrections to dosimetry errors could be made immediately. However, seed specularity, shadowing, and tissue clutter make imaging seeds difficult using conventional ultrasound. Singular spectrum analysis (SSA) shows promise for reliably imaging radioactive seeds implanted in the prostate and enabling additional corrective implantations to be made in the operating room. SSA utilizes eigenvalues derived from the diagonalized correlation matrix of envelope-detected radiofrequency echo signals to yield a P-value indicative of the likelihood of a seed-specific repetitive signal. We demonstrated the potential of SSA for seed detection and imaging and illustrated the trade-off considerations for optimization of SSA in clinical applications using simulations assessing performance as a function of different levels of noise and the presence of repetitive signals with various repetition periods; experiments in an ideal scattering environment; and experiments using seeds implanted in beef