Registration of MR and CT images of the liver: comparison of voxel similarity and surface based registration algorithms

• Published in: Computer methods and programs in biomedicine Vol. 78; no. 2; pp. 101 - 114
• Main Authors: Christina Lee, Wen-Chi, Tublin, Mitchell E., Chapman, Brian E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.05.2005
• Subjects: Algorithms; Computed tomography; Feasibility Studies; Humans; Image Enhancement; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Image registration; Liver; Liver - anatomy & histology; Liver - diagnostic imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods; Retrospective Studies; Software; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; United States; Image registration; Magnetic resonance imaging; Computed tomography; Liver
• ISSN: 0169-2607; 1872-7565
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2004.12.006

The purpose of this work was to determine the feasibility and efficacy of retrospective registration of MR and CT images of the liver. The open-source ITK Insight Software package developed by the National Library of Medicine (USA) contains a multi-resolution, voxel-similarity-based registration algorithm which we selected as our baseline registration method. For comparison we implemented a multi-scale surface fitting technique based on the head-and-hat algorithm. Registration accuracy was assessed using the mean displacement of automatically selected point landmarks. The ITK voxel-similarity-based registration algorithm performed better than the surface-based approach with mean misregistration in the range of 7.7–8.4 mm for CT–CT registration, 8.2 mm for MR–MR registration, and 14.0–18.9 mm for MR–CT registration compared to mean misregistration from the surface-based technique in the range of 9.6–11.1 mm for CT–CT registration, 9.2–12.4 mm for MR–MR registration, and 15.2–19.0 mm for MR–CT registration.