Image registration algorithm in CT and cone beam CT based on Contourlet transform

目的提出一种基于Contourlet变换,用于放射治疗定位的CT与锥形束CT(cone beam CT,CBCT)图像配准的方法.方法 利用Contourlet变换多尺度多方向的分辨特性,将待配准图像进行Contourlet变换分解,分解后的高频方向子带合成梯度图像,采用归一化互信息作为相似性测度,把梯度图像与低频方向子带以加权函数结合,进行临床医学图像的刚性配准,有效弥补了互信息配准中缺少空间信息的不足.结果 通过已知空间变换参数图像的配准结果验证了算法的准确性.配准后10幅图像变换参数的误差极小,且均方根误差接近于0.结论 该图像配准算法精确度高,并具有很好的鲁棒性,有助于提高图像引导放射治疗(image guided radiation therapy,IGRT)中解剖组织结构和靶区的定位精度.     

基于Contourlet变换和PCNN的CT图像椎体解剖轮廓特征提取方法的研究

提出一种新的基于Contourlet变换和脉冲耦合神经网络(PCNN)的医学图像解剖轮廓特征提取算法。首先对原始椎体CT图像进行Contourlet变换,得到能稀疏表示图像边缘以及方向信息的子带和低频子带;然后结合PCNN对低频子带进行边缘轮廓细节提取,最后利用处理后的所有子带系数,通过Contourlet逆变换,提取出图像的边缘轮廓。实验将本算法提取的结果与Canny算子、区域生长法以及结合小波变换和PCNN的算法提取的图像边缘轮廓进行比较,结果表明新算法能够有效的实现医学图像解剖结构轮廓特征的提取。     

基于互信息医学刚性图像配准方法的研究

目的:基于互信息的配准方法是医学图像配准领域的重要方法,具有鲁棒性,精度高等优点。本文探究医学刚性图像配准的有效算法和关键技术。方法:基于互信息配准方法,利用Powell多参数算法和改进的PV插值算法,得到两幅图像之间的最大互信息和最佳配准参数。结果:二维磨牙CT图像配准实验表明,配准速度快,精度提高,验证了插值方法的有效性。结论:方法和算法可提高配准速度,能有效抑制互信息目标函数的局部极值。     

基于互信息与边缘梯度相结合的多模医学图像配准方法

针对传统互信息配准方法未利用图像空间信息的缺点,本文研究了图像边缘信息的梯度相似性.首先采用小波模极大值边缘检测提取出图像边缘,提出将边缘图像的梯度相似性系数与传统的互信息相乘作为图像配准的目标函数.然后通过使用Powell优化算法对目标函数进行寻优,得出配准变换参数.最后在互信息的基础上引入图像边缘梯度信息,突出了全局最优解.实验结果表明,该方法可以得到精确、有效的配准结果.     

基于多分辨率GMI Demons算法的18F-FDG PET-CT图像配准在食道癌病例中的应用

18F-FDG PET和CT图像的精确配准在肿瘤的放射治疗中具有重要的临床研究意义,本研究采用全局刚性粗配准对食道癌病例中的PET和CT图像进行预处理,尽可能地减小摆位误差,然后使用基于互信息梯度的Demons算法(GMI Demons)进行局部形变配准,有效弥补内部器官误差,另外为了加快配准过程,保持图像的鲁棒性的同时避免局部极值,在形变配准前使用多分辨率图像金字塔结构。通过对10例食道癌病例的定量分析,最大互信息值结果说明经GMI Demons算法配准之后的图像精度比基于MI算法要提高8.046%±0.041%,配准前后临床上肿瘤靶区(GTV)大小的变化,说明经GMI Demons算法配准之后的GTV大小比基于MI算法配准之后的精度提高8.022%±0.044%。两种定量结果的一致性和通过对图像的定性分析,说明该配准策略可以快速地精确肿瘤靶区位置,在制定精确的放疗计划和实际的临床应用中具有研究意义。     

锥形束CT与螺旋CT图像配准算法及其在放疗中的应用

目的：随着肿瘤放射治疗的发展,提高肿瘤放射治疗的精确度成为了重要的发展趋势。通过硬件与软件的共同发展,实现在线纠正治疗误差在医学图像帮助下完成放疗是现今临床研究的热点。图像引导放射治疗就是在这样理念的基础上发展出来的新型放疗模式。本文研究的目的就是阐述在现今临床普遍采用的锥形束CT与螺旋CT的图像配准在肿瘤放射治疗中的实际应用与重要性。通过研究总结出一套系统化的肿瘤放射治疗图像配准理论,发现最新研究热点、阐述最新研究不足,为今后进一步的发展图像引导放射治疗打下基础。方法：本文通过阐述基本医学图像配准理论,结合具体图像配准算法,应用于图像引导放射治疗,总结出一套系统化用于锥形束CT与螺旋CT图像配准的模式,从而获得更加快速准确的配准结果,改善图像引导放射治疗的效率。本文查阅了近几年计算机软件图像处理的大量文献,同时结合查阅大量图像引导放射治疗的文献,总结前人经验结合理论实践,综合阐述了一套应用于图像引导放射治疗的图像配准系统。结果：锥形束CT与螺旋CT的图像配准,在临床应用上多使用刚性图像配准,其有速度快便于计算的优势。但涉及到患者整体体位配准情况下,弹性图像配准在配准准确度上具有明显优势,需结合临床实际需求以及计算机运算能力的发展想结合选择合适的配准算法。结论：随着肿瘤放射治疗中图像引导技术的应用,螺旋CT定位图像与锥形束CT治疗图像的配准是图像引导放射治疗的关键技术,如何准确而且快速的获取配准结果成了精确放射治疗关注的焦点。螺旋CT定位图像与锥形束CT治疗图像的精确配准是精确放射治疗的前提,并在提高肿瘤剂量的同时,最大限度的保护正常组织,从而提高肿瘤放射治疗的疗效。本文主要综述了应用于精确放射治     

基于多目标交叉变异粒子群算法的多模医学图像非刚性配准

以互信息为相似性测度,采用B样条变换对多模态医学图像进行非刚性配准时,由于噪声及图像插值等原因造成的互信息局部极值使得传统优化方法不能搜索到最佳配准参数。为此,使用粒子群智能优化方法作为搜索策略,以降低对图像预处理的要求,进一步提高基于互信息的非刚性配准的鲁棒性。为了克服粒子群算法受初始值选取等因素的影响易陷于局部最优的缺点,使用LBFGS优化得到的结果构造初始粒子群,采用多目标优化方法结合交叉变异策略加以改进,使得算法在解空间搜索的遍历性得到改善,优化结果更接近全局最优。MR-T2与MR-PD图像的配准实验证明,该方法提高了基于互信息的B样条非刚性配准的鲁棒性,配准率达到94%;CT与PET图像的配准实验表明该方法相比惯性权重粒子群算法提高了配准精度,互信息增加了0.026;另外,CT与CBCT图像的配准实验也验证了本方法的有效性。     

基于局部联合熵梯度的双向多分辨率Demons算法

针对active demons算法易受到参数设置的影响,无法有效解决大形变场的配准问题,本研究提出了基于局部联合熵梯度的双向多分辨率demons算法。利用在配准过程中两幅图像的互信息不断增加,局部联合熵增大的规律,本研究引入两幅图像局部联合熵参数,将图像局部联合熵的梯度附加到demons驱动力中,实现了基于局部联合熵梯度的双向多分辨率demons算法。利用自然图像、MRI图像和CT图像测试本算法的优越性,与active demons,diffeomorphic demons算法进行对比分析,采用均方误差、归一化互相关系数和结构相似度对配准结果进行定量评价。本算法归一化互相关系数和结构相似度最高,均方误差最小。通过分析权重系数的影响和设置合适的参数,本算法可应用于大形变的医学图像配准,具有一定的临床应用价值。     

一种射野图像和参考图像的自动配准方法

目的:及时纠正放射治疗过程中患者的摆位误差,提高放射治疗效果.方法:本文对放疗中射野图像和参考图像的进行配准,应用Canny算子进行两幅图像的边缘提取,将提取的图像边缘作为配准的基准点,以射野图像与参考图像的最大互信息为配准准则,应用模拟退火法优化配准参数,搜索图像最大互信息.结果:本文对29例宫颈癌和前列腺癌患者的射野图像与参考图像进行了配准,结果表明该方法配准精度高,提高了配准的速度.结论:该配准方法适用于放疗临床摆位误差的在线分析.     

基于Contourlet阈值法的锥形束CT图像去噪研究

目的：将多尺度分析工具之一的Contourlet变换运用到锥形束CT（CBCT）图像去噪领域,并对Contourlet不同阈值去噪方法进行探讨。提出基于Contourlet变换结合半软阈值方法对锥形束CT去噪,并论证去噪效果。方法：利用Contourlet变换的多尺度多方向性以及平移不变性,对低分辨率锥形束CT图像进行拉普拉斯塔形滤波和方向滤波多层分解后得到变换系数,随后对变换系数采用不同阈值方法进行处理,最后逆序反变换得到去噪后图像。通过软阈值和硬阈值方法在Contourlet变换中的应用,提出半软阈值结合Contourlet变换方法对锥形束CT图像去噪。通过对头,胸,盆腔各10例临床锥形束CT图像的去噪,比较三种阈值去噪效果。结果：半软阈值法在胸部和盆腔部锥形束CT图像去噪中比Contourlet硬阈值去噪在PSNR上平均高出1.40 d B和3.11 d B,但在头部锥形束CT图像处理中无优势,而Contourlet软阈值去噪后的锥形束CT图像在消除噪声的同时,信号自身的能量被消弱最多。结论：本文半软阈值法在一定程度上修正了硬,软阈值函数的缺陷,结合Contourlet变换在处理图像几何结构方面的优势,为锥形束CT图像去噪提供了一个新思路。     

Comparative evaluation of similarity measures for the rigid registration of multi-modal head images

Image registrations that are based on similarity measures simply adjust the parameters of an appropriate spatial transformation model until the similarity measure reaches an optimum. The numerous similarity measures that have been proposed in the past are differently sensitive to imaging modality, image content and differences in the image content, selection of the floating and target image, partial image overlap, etc. In this paper, we evaluate and compare 12 similarity measures for the rigid registration. To study the impact of different imaging modalities on the behavior of similarity measures, we have used 16 CT/MR and 6 PET/MR image pairs with known 'gold standard' registrations. The results for the PET/MR registration and for the registration of CT to both rectified and unrectified MR images indicate that mutual information, normalized mutual information and the entropy correlation coefficient are the most accurate similarity measures and have the smallest risk of being trapped in a local optimum. The results of an experiment on the impact of exchanging the floating and target image indicate that, especially in MR/PET registrations, the behavior of some similarity measures, such as mutual information, significantly depends on which image is the floating and which is the target.     

Registration-based Automatic 3D Segmentation of Cardiac CT Images

Segmenting whole heart from cardiac computed tomography(CT images can provide an important basis for the evaluation of cardiac function and help improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis. Manual segmentation is the most accurate method for cardiac segmentation. But it is time consuming and not sufficiently reproducible. However, clinicians still rely on this method in practical applications. So a fully automatic method is needed to improve the segmentation efficiency. This pape proposes a registration-based automatic approach for three-dimensional(3D segmentation of cardiac CT images. The proposed method utilizes the similarity o cardiac CT images between different individuals, and uses registration to achieve the segmentation. Affine transformation is firstly implemented to achieve global coarse registration. Then, cubic B-splines are used to refine the local details in locally accurate registration. Mutual information(Ml) is used as the similarity measure, and adaptive stochastic gradient descent(ASGD) as the optimization algorithm. Ou method is applied to the dual-source cardiac CT images to segment whole heart Experimental results show that the proposed method can automatically segment whole heart from cardiac CT images.     

Dual-isotope Acquisition for CT–SPECT Registration of Infection Studies

The registration of CT and NM images can enhance patient diagnosis since it allows for the fusion of anatomical and functional information as well as attenuation correction of NM images. However, irrespective of the methods used, registration accuracy depends heavily on the characteristics of the input images and the degree of similarity between them. This poses a challenge for registering CT and NM images as they may have very different characteristics. To address the particular problem of CT and In-111 SPECT registration, we propose to perform a dual-isotope study which involves an additional injection of Tc-99m MDP to generate two inherently registered images: In-111 SPECT and Tc-99m SPECT. As skeletal structures are visible in both CT and Tc-99m SPECT, performing registration of these images may be much more effective. The very same spatial transformation derived can be immediately applied to complete the registration of CT and the corresponding In-111 SPECT. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the registration of CT and Tc-99m SPECT can be more accurately performed than the registration of CT and In-111 SPECT and seek to compare the accuracies between the aforementioned registrations. In this paper, we have collected three clinical datasets, with the ground-truth transformations known, and tested the proposed approach by using a mutual information-based algorithm to solve for the rigid/non-rigid misalignments introduced to them. Based on the results of our experiments, we conclude that registration using Tc-99m SPECT can achieve 100% success rate, and is thus much more superior to the registration using In-111 SPECT, which at best, achieves only 38% success rate. Clearly, the introduction of a dual-isotope acquisition can substantially improve the registration of SPECT and CT images.     

Robust feature-based registration using a Gaussian-weighted distance map and brain feature points for brain PET/CT images

Feature-based registration is an effective technique for clinical use, because it can greatly reduce computational costs. However, this technique, which estimates the transformation by using feature points extracted from two images may cause misalignments, particularly in brain PET and CT images that have low correspondence rates between features due to differences in image characteristics. To cope with this limitation, we propose a robust feature-based registration technique using a Gaussian-weighted distance map (GWDM) that finds the best alignment of feature points even when features of two images are mismatched. A GWDM is generated by propagating the value of the Gaussian-weighted mask from feature points of CT images and leads the feature points of PET images to be aligned on an optimal location even though there is a localization error between feature points extracted from PET and CT images. Feature points are extracted from two images by our automatic brain segmentation method. In our experiments, simulated and clinical data sets were used to compare our method with conventional methods such as normalized mutual information (NMI)-based registration and chamfer matching in accuracy, robustness, and computational time. Experimental results showed that our method aligned the images robustly even in cases where conventional methods failed to find optimal locations. In addition, the accuracy of our method was comparable to that of the NMI-based registration method.     

基于傅里叶梅林变换的图像配准方法

目的:提出一种新的配准框架用于图像引导放射治疗系统中的2D/3D图像配准,有效降低传统方法迭代搜索时间,同时保证放射治疗要求的配准精度。方法:利用傅里叶梅林变换方法对正侧位kV图像与对应方位参考CT图像生成的数字重建放射影像（DRR）进行粗配准,根据傅里叶梅林变换计算得到的二维平移向量以及放射治疗系统的机械几何参数反推出参考CT图像的三维空间位置偏差,更新正侧位的DRR图像,最后通过正侧位kV图像与DRR图像的相似度进行精配准达到临床需求。结果:采用临床金标准数据验证方法的配准性能,实验结果表明,配准误差为0.576 5 mm,平均运行时间为3.34 s。结论:该方法鲁棒性强,对图像的噪声不敏感,人工干预少,可满足临床应用的需求。     

2D to 3D fusion of echocardiography and cardiac CT for TAVR and TAVI image guidance

This study proposed a registration framework to fuse 2D echocardiography images of the aortic valve with preoperative cardiac CT volume. The registration facilitates the fusion of CT and echocardiography to aid the diagnosis of aortic valve diseases and provide surgical guidance during transcatheter aortic valve replacement and implantation. The image registration framework consists of two major steps: temporal synchronization and spatial registration. Temporal synchronization allows time stamping of echocardiography time series data to identify frames that are at similar cardiac phase as the CT volume. Spatial registration is an intensity-based normalized mutual information method applied with pattern search optimization algorithm to produce an interpolated cardiac CT image that matches the echocardiography image. Our proposed registration method has been applied on the short-axis “Mercedes Benz” sign view of the aortic valve and long-axis parasternal view of echocardiography images from ten patients. The accuracy of our fully automated registration method was 0.81 ± 0.08 and 1.30 ± 0.13 mm in terms of Dice coefficient and Hausdorff distance for short-axis aortic valve view registration, whereas for long-axis parasternal view registration it was 0.79 ± 0.02 and 1.19 ± 0.11 mm, respectively. This accuracy is comparable to gold standard manual registration by expert. There was no significant difference in aortic annulus diameter measurement between the automatically and manually registered CT images. Without the use of optical tracking, we have shown the applicability of this technique for effective fusion of echocardiography with preoperative CT volume to potentially facilitate catheter-based surgery.     

Robust and fast shell registration in PET and MR/CT brain images

A robust and fast hybrid method using a shell volume that consists of high contrast voxels with their neighbors is proposed for registering PET and MR/CT brain images. Whereas conventional hybrid methods find the best matched pairs from several manually selected or automatically extracted local regions, our method automatically selects a shell volume in the PET image, and finds the best matched corresponding volume using normalized mutual information (NMI) in overlapping volumes while transforming the shell volume into an MR or CT image. A shell volume not only can reduce irrelevant corresponding voxels between two images during optimization of transformation parameters, but also brings a more robust registration with less computational cost. Experimental results on clinical data sets showed that our method successfully aligned all PET and MR/CT image pairs without losing any diagnostic information, while the conventional registration methods failed in some cases.     

基于互信息的医学图像配准中互信息的计算

基于互信息的配准方法是医学图像配准领域的重要方法.互信息是图像配准中常用的相似性度量,具有鲁棒、精度高等优点,但基于互信息的配准计算量大,制约了它的实际应用.我们采用基于多分辨率和混合优化策略的配准方法,在图像的不同灰度等级数下进行配准,分析了互信息的计算量与灰度等级数的关系,并用人头部的MRI图像和CT图像做了二维的单模模拟实验和多模实际配准实验,结果显示在灰度等级数为32和64时,与灰度等级数为256时相比,配准精度没有明显改变,而计算量下降显著.