Navigation of a magnetic micro-robot through a cerebral aneurysm phantom with magnetic particle imaging
Anna C. Bakenecker, Anselm von Gladiss, Hannes Schwenke, André Behrends, Thomas Friedrich, Kerstin Lüdtke‐Buzug, Alexander Neumann, Jörg Barkhausen, Franz Wegner, Thorsten M. Buzug
Abstract
Cerebral aneurysms are potentially life threatening and nowadays treated by a catheter-guided coiling or by a neurosurgical clipping intervention. Here, we propose a helically shaped magnetic micro-robot, which can be steered by magnetic fields in an untethered manner and could be applied for a novel coiling procedure. This is shown by navigating the micro-robot through an additively manufactured phantom of a human cerebral aneurysm. The magnetic fields are applied with a magnetic particle imaging (MPI) scanner, which allows for the navigation and tomographic visualization by the same machine. With MPI the actuation process can be visualized with a localization accuracy of 0.68 mm and an angiogram can be acquired both without any radiation exposure. First in-vitro phantom experiments are presented, showing an idea of a robot conducted treatment of cerebral aneurysms.