Ultrasound image analysis for renal stone tracking during extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.

Although extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the standard procedure for treating renal stones, little work has been done on ways to minimize the side effects and on treatment optimization. A system that uses ultrasound imaging for real time renal stone monitoring is presented here and some aspects of the image analysis module are described. The improved system has proved to be more robust than the unmodified system. With such a system, the injury on healthy tissues is reduced while the treatment time is shortened.