Automated bone contour detection in ultrasound B-mode images for minimally invasive registration in computer-assisted surgery-an in vitro evaluation.

Background: Minimally invasive surgical interventions performed using computer-assisted surgery (CAS) systems require reliable registration methods for pre-operatively acquired patient anatomy representations that are compatible with the minimally invasive paradigm. The use of brightness-mode ultrasound seems to be promising, if associated devices work in a computationally efficient and fully automatic manner.

Methods: This paper presents a rapid and fully automatic segmentation approach for ultrasound B-mode images capable of detecting echoes from bony structures.