Head-Mounted Display-Assisted Spatial Guidance in Ultrasonography: A Technical Report

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Mixed Reality Technology
• Ultrasound Applications

Background:

• Ultrasonography (US) effectiveness in head and neck imaging is limited by anatomical complexity and operator experience.
• Mixed Reality (MR) technology offers potential for medical applications by overlaying 3D models onto real environments using head-mounted displays (HMDs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a prototype HMD-based system for enhanced spatial guidance in US examinations via MR visualization.
• To assess the feasibility of MR technology in supporting lesion targeting during US procedures.

Main Methods:

• A soft tissue phantom with artificial lesions was scanned via CT to create 3D holographic models.
• A custom MR application on Microsoft HoloLens 2 displayed the models for HMD-assisted US.
• Six sonographers were divided into conventional US (Group A) and HMD-assisted US (Group B) groups to perform lesion identification tasks.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in task completion time between Group A (178s) and Group B (293s) (p=0.21).
• Clinical experience was negatively correlated with task time (R=-0.71), with experienced operators being faster.
• Group B showed a trend towards fewer missed/false lesions, but this was not statistically significant (p=0.076).

Conclusions:

• The HMD-based MR guidance system is a feasible approach for supporting lesion targeting in US examinations.
• MR technology may enhance spatial awareness and complement conventional US in scanning procedures, as suggested by this preliminary phantom study.