FDA Clears AI 'Contouring Assistant' in MRI-Guided Ultrasound Ablation Procedures

News
Article

The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered module provides a prostate segmentation tool for MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) procedures in patients with prostate cancer.

Reportedly built on over 24 million parameters drawn from nearly 7,500 training images, the artificial intelligence (AI) module Contouring Assistant has garnered 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) procedures in patients with prostate cancer.

Utilized in conjunction with Profound Medical’s TULSA-PRO system, the Contouring Assistant module offers machine learning-based segmentation of the prostate to facilitate targeted ablation of diseased tissue.

FDA Clears AI ‘Contouring Assistant’ in MRI-Guided Ultrasound Ablation Procedures for Prostate Cancer

Utilized in conjunction with Profound Medical’s TULSA-PRO system (shown above), the recently FDA-cleared Contouring Assistant module provides machine-learning based prostate segmentation, which was found to be non-inferior to contouring done by leading prostate radiologists, according to Profound Medical, the manufacturer of the Contouring Assistant module. (Image courtesy of Profound Medical.)

Profound Medical noted that the Contouring Assistant module was developed with a reference standard that combined contours from leading prostate radiologists Steven Raman, M.D., Robert Princethal, M.D., and Edward Steiner, M.D. Subsequent research evaluating the stand-alone capability of Contouring Assistant in 100 prostate cancer cases found it was non-inferior to the aforementioned reference standard, according to Profound Medical.

The company also noted that additional testing of the Contouring Assistant module by three urologists demonstrated a 32 percent reduction in the time it took to complete prostate segmentation.

“ … (Contouring) Assistant not only allowed my esteemed urologist colleagues and I to approach the accuracy of an expert radiologist reader in our TULSA treatment designs, but also enabled us to reduce overall procedure times by one-third,” noted Preston Sprenkle, M.D., an associate professor of urology at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Ct.

Newsletter

Stay at the forefront of radiology with the Diagnostic Imaging newsletter, delivering the latest news, clinical insights, and imaging advancements for today’s radiologists.

Recent Videos
 What New Research Reveals About Portable Low-Field MRI and Patients with Suspected Alzheimer’s Disease
Diagnostic Imaging's Weekly Scan: August 11 — August 17 (Video Version)
Can Portable Low-Field MRI Facilitate Viable Triage and Health Equity for Patients with Suspected Alzheimer’s Disease?
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.