Automatic three-dimensional model for protontherapy of the eye: preliminary results

Recently, radiotherapy possibilities have been dramatically increased by software and hardware developments. Improvements in medical imaging devices have increased the importance of three-dimensional (3D) images as the complete examination of these data by a physician is not possible. Computer techniques are needed to present only the pertinent information for clinical applications. We describe a technique for an automatic 3D reconstruction of the eye and CT scan merging with fundus photographs (retinography). The final result is a "virtual eye" to guide ocular tumor protontherapy. First, we make specific software to automatically detect the position of the eyeball, the optical nerve, and the lens in the CT scan. We obtain a 3D eye reconstruction using this automatic method. Second, we describe the retinography and demonstrate the projection of this modality. Then we combine retinography with a reconstructed eye, using a CT scan to get a virtual eye. The result is a computer 3D scene rendering a virtual eye into a skull reconstruction. The virtual eye can be useful for the simulation, the planning, and the control of ocular tumor protontherapy. It can be adapted to treatment planning to automatically detect eye and organs at risk position. It should be highlighted that all the image processing is fully automatic to allow the reproduction of results, this is a useful property to conduct a consistent clinical validation. The automatic localization of the organ at risk in a CT scan or an MRI by automatic software could be of great interest for radiotherapy in the future for comparison of one patient at different times, the comparison of different treatments centers, the possibility of pooling results of different treatments centers, the automatic generation of doses-volumes histograms, the comparison between different treatment planning for the same patient and the comparison between different patients at the same time. It will also be less time consuming.