Optimizing Point of Entry Location in Lung Biopsy Planning Systems Through Heatmaps

We present a virtual model to optimize point of entry (POE) in lung biopsy planning systems. Our model allows to compute the quality of a biopsy sample taken from potential POE. Biopsy quality is given by a heatmap projected onto the skeleton of a patient-specific model of airways. The skeleton provides a 3D representation of airways structure, while the heatmap intensity represents the maximum amount of tissue that could be extracted from each POE. This amount of tissue is determined by the intersection of the lesion with a cone that represents an uncertainty area in the introduction of biopsy instruments. The cone, lesion, and skeleton define a 3D scene. The analysis of the heatmaps for different settings of the 3 elements of the scene allow to draw conclusions about the impact on the biopsy of lesion characteristics, like shape, orientation and distance to bronchi.