A mechatronic guidance system for positron emission mammography and ultrasound-guided breast biopsy

Introduction: Image-guided biopsy is crucial for diagnosis and treatment planning for women with breast cancer. Positron emission mammography (PEM) is an emerging breast-specific functional imaging method, demonstrating high sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy compared to conventional breast imaging modalities. PEM shows potential to improve tumour detection for image-guided breast biopsy, but anatomical reference and visualization for needle guidance is not available. These limitations can be overcome by combining PEM with an established ultrasound (US) guided method to improve image-guided biopsy. Therefore, we aim to develop a mechatronic image-guidance system for combined PEM and US-guided breast biopsy. The specific aim of this work is to develop the mechatronic system and evaluate its needle-tracking accuracy for image-guided breast biopsy.