SpinoBot: An MRI-Guided Needle Positioning System for Spinal Cellular Therapeutics

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Alexander Squires, University of Georgia; John Oshinski, Emory University; Nicholas Boulis, Emory University; Zion Tsz Ho Tse, University of Georgia
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-03-01
• Publisher: Springer
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 Biomedical Engineering Society
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1960-z
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Annals of Biomedical Engineering
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 3
• Start Page: 475
• End Page: 487
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Bench-to-Bedside Award, the NIH Center for Interventional Oncology Grant, the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Team Grant (1617340), NSF REU site program 1359095, the UGA-AU Inter-Institutional Seed Funding, the American Society for Quality Dr. Richard J. Schlesinger Grant, the PHS Grant UL1TR000454 from the Clinical and Translational Science Award Program, and the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
• Keywords: Stem cell therapy; Engineering, Biomedical; Column deformity; Spinal injection; Lumbar; Technology; Transplantation; MRI compatible; Amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis; Design; Engineering; Stroke; Children; MRI-guided intervention; Laminectomy; Science & Technology; Robot; CD34(+) cells; Medical robotics
• Research Categories: Engineering, Biomedical; Biology, Cell; Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

The neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) results in the death of motor neurons in voluntary muscles. There are no cures for ALS and few available treatments. In studies with small animal models, injection of cellular therapeutics into the anterior horn of the spinal cord has been shown to inhibit the progression of ALS. It was hypothesized that spinal injection could be made faster and less invasive with the aid of a robot. The robotic system presented—SpinoBot—uses MRI guidance to position a needle for percutaneous injection into the spinal cord. With four degrees of freedom (DOF) provided by two translation stages and two rotational axes, SpinoBot proved capable of advanced targeting with a mean error of 1.12 mm and standard deviation of 0.97 mm in bench tests, and a mean error of 2.2 mm and standard deviation of 0.85 mm in swine cadaver tests. SpinoBot has shown less than 3% signal-to-noise ratio reduction in 3T MR imaging quality, demonstrating its compliance to the MRI environment. With the aid of SpinoBot, the length of the percutaneous injection procedure is reduced to less than 60 min with 10 min for each additional insertion. Although SpinoBot is designed for ALS treatment, it could potentially be used for other procedures that require precise access to the spine.