Abstract
CyberKnife® provides continuous guidance through radiography, allowing instantaneous X-ray images to be obtained; it is also equipped with 6D adjustment for patient setup. Its disadvantage is that registration is carried out just before irradiation, making it impossible to perform stereo-radiography during irradiation. In addition, patient movement cannot be detected during irradiation. In this study, we describe a new registration system that we term “Machine Vision,” which subjects the patient to no additional radiation exposure for registration purposes, can be set up promptly, and allows real-time registration during irradiation. Our technique offers distinct advantages over CyberKnife by enabling a safer and more precise mode of treatment. “Machine Vision,” which we have designed and fabricated, is an automatic registration system that employs three charge coupled device cameras oriented in different directions that allow us to obtain a characteristic depiction of the shape of both sides of the fetal fissure and external ears in a human head phantom. We examined the degree of precision of this registration system and concluded it to be suitable as an alternative method of registration without radiation exposure when displacement is less than 1.0 mm in radiotherapy. It has potential for application to CyberKnife in clinical treatment.
