Twelve patients underwent SAAR-guided HDR-BT, during which SR3D images were acquired for subsequent segmentation and analysis. A total of 183 needles were investigated. Needle end-length measurements were taken, providing a gold standard for insertion depths. Dosimetric impact of insertion depth errors (IDEs) on clinical treatment plans was assessed.
SR3D guidance provided statistically significantly smaller IDEs than SAAR guidance with a mean ± SD of −0.6 ± 3.2 mm and 2.8 ± 3.2 mm, respectively (p < 0.001). Shadow artifacts were found to obstruct the view of some needle tips in SR3D images either partially (12%) or fully (10%); however, SR3D IDEs had a statistically significantly smaller impact on prostate V100% than SAAR IDEs with mean ± SD decreases of −1.2 ± 1.3% and −6.5 ± 6.7%, respectively (p < 0.05).
SR3D-guided HDR-BT eliminates a source of systematic uncertainty from the SAAR-guided approach, providing decreased IDEs for most needles, leading to a significant decrease in dosimetric uncertainty. Although imaging artifacts can limit the accuracy of tip localization in a subset of needles, we identified a method to mitigate these artifacts for clinical implementation.