基于互信息的多分辨率三维脑图像配准方法

在3D多模医学图像的配准方法中，最大互信息法精度高，鲁棒性强，使用范围广，本文将归一化互信息作为相似性测度，采用不同的采样范围和采样子集，使用Powell多参数优化法和Brent一维搜索算法对3DCT，MR和PET脑图像进行了刚体配准，为了加快配准速度，使用了多分辨的金字塔方法，对PET图像采用基于坐标的阈值选取方法对图像进行分割预算法，消除了大部分放射状背景伪影，美国万德贝尔大学对结果进行的评估证明配准精度可达亚体元级。     

Multichannel algorithm for fast 3D reconstruction

Some recent medical imaging applications such as functional imaging (PET and SPECT) or interventional imaging (CT fluoroscopy) involve increasing amounts of data. In order to reduce the image reconstruction time, we develop a new fast 3D reconstruction algorithm based on a divide and conquer approach. The proposed multichannel algorithm performs an indirect frequential subband decomposition of the image f to be reconstructed (f = sigma fj) through the filtering of the projections Rf. The subband images fj are reconstructed on a downsampled grid without information suppression. In order to reduce the computation time, we do not backproject the null filtered projections and we downsample the number of projections according to the Shannon conditions associated with the subband image. Our algorithm is based on filtering and backprojection operators. Using the same algorithms for these basic operators, our approach is three and a half times faster than a classical FBP algorithm for a 2D image 512 x 512 and six times faster for a 3D image 32 x 512 x 512.     

基于深度学习的2D/3D医学图像配准研究

2D/3D配准在临床诊断和手术导航规划中有着广泛的应用,可解决医学图像领域中不同维度图像存在信息缺失的问题,能辅助医生在术中精准定位患者的病灶。常规的2D/3D配准方法主要依赖于图像的灰度进行配准,但非常耗时,不利于临床实时性的需求,并且配准过程中容易陷入局部最优值。提出用深度学习的方法来解决2D/3D医学图像配准问题。采用一个基于深度学习的卷积神经网络,通过网络对数字影像重建技术(DRR)进行训练并自动学习图像特征,预测X光图像所对应的参数,从而实现配准。以人体骨盆的模型骨为实验对象,根据骨盆的CT数据生成36000张DRR图像作为训练集,同时通过C臂采集模型骨的50张X光图像作为验证。结果显示,深度学习算法在相关系数、归一化互信息、欧式距离3个精度评价指标上的测试值分别为0.82±0.07、0.32±0.03、61.56±10.91,而常规2D/3D算法对应的测试值分别为0.79±0.07、0.29±0.03、37.92±7.24,说明深度学习算法的配准精度优于常规2D/3D算法的配准精度,且不存在陷入局部最优值的问题。同时,深度学习的配准时间约为0.03s,远低于常规2D/3D配准的时间,可满足临床对于实时配准的需求,未来将进一步开展临床数据的2D/3D配准研究。     

Automatic registration between 3D intra-operative ultrasound and pre-operative CT images of the liver based on robust edge matching

The registration of a three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) image with a computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance image is beneficial in various clinical applications such as diagnosis and image-guided intervention of the liver. However, conventional methods usually require a time-consuming and inconvenient manual process for pre-alignment, and the success of this process strongly depends on the proper selection of initial transformation parameters. In this paper, we present an automatic feature-based affine registration procedure of 3D intra-operative US and pre-operative CT images of the liver. In the registration procedure, we first segment vessel lumens and the liver surface from a 3D B-mode US image. We then automatically estimate an initial registration transformation by using the proposed edge matching algorithm. The algorithm finds the most likely correspondences between the vessel centerlines of both images in a non-iterative manner based on a modified Viterbi algorithm. Finally, the registration is iteratively refined on the basis of the global affine transformation by jointly using the vessel and liver surface information. The proposed registration algorithm is validated on synthesized datasets and 20 clinical datasets, through both qualitative and quantitative evaluations. Experimental results show that automatic registration can be successfully achieved between 3D B-mode US and CT images even with a large initial misalignment.     

基于分水岭算法的交互式三维分割方法

背景：在临床中准确对人体组织进行三维分割能提高临床诊断的准确性,但传统的分水岭算法存在过度分割问题,难以实现人体组织的三维分割。 目的：为准确三维分割人体组织,减少图像中伪极小值点对图像分割的影响,提出了一种基于控制标记符分水岭的交互式三维分割方法。 方法：提取CT序列图像的内部和外部标记符,以此修正梯度图像并进行分割;在此基础上,根据序列图像上下层的相似性,利用人机交互进行组织结构的三维分割。首先在第一张序列图像上手工选取感兴趣区域上的一个点,借助同一组织在连续CT序列图像上面积的重叠关系即可从三维序列图上提取出感兴趣区域。 结果与结论：基于控制标记符的分水岭算法解决了直接应用梯度图像进行分割的过度分割问题,便于进一步分割图像。利用基于分水岭算法的交互式三维分割方法得到的三维分割结果经过三维可视化后可清晰、准确地反映组织的三维特征。     

节点反投影方法在三维EIT模型中的仿真与实验研究

电阻抗成像(EIT)技术中逆问题的病态特性是造成重建图像分辨率较低的主要原因之一,增加先验信息是改善成像效果的可行方法.建立三维圆柱体仿真模型,对边界电压数据进行多项式曲面拟合,增加先验信息,采用节点反投影方法进行图像重建.对两种目标模型进行仿真实验,并利用本实验室设计的128通道EIT系统进行水槽物理模型重建实验.仿真实验结果表明,较之传统的反投影方法,两种目标模型采用节点反投影方法重建的总体误差分别降低了8.87％和6.85％;在物理模型中,重建图像可清晰显示目标物体.所提出的方法有望用于提高临床检测与监护的成像质量.     

基于三维区域生长算法的脑灰质提取方法的研究

目的探求从头颅磁共振成像（MRI）图像中提取出大脑灰质图像的方法。方法采用阈值分割预处理MRI图像,人工选择种子点、采用18-邻域的三维区域生长从头颅MRI图像中提取脑灰质图像,最终用腐蚀和膨胀算法弥补区域生长算法的不足。结果利用此方法对5套MRI数据进行操作,取得了满意的分割效果;使用VTK提供的面绘制算法对提取出的脑灰质图像进行三维重建,得到了高质量的大脑皮层图像。结论该方法能够得到满意的大脑灰质提取效果。     

Non-rigid image registration using a median-filtered coarse-to-fine displacement field and a symmetric correlation ratio

Conventional approaches to image registration are generally limited to image-wide rigid transformations. However, the body and its internal organs are non-rigid structures that change shape due to changes in the body's posture during image acquisition, and due to normal, pathological and treatment-related variations. Inter-subject matching also constitutes a non-rigid registration problem. In this paper, we present a fully automated non-rigid image registration method that maximizes a local voxel-based similarity metric. Overlapping image blocks are defined on a 3D grid. The transformation vector field representing image deformation is found by translating each block so as to maximize the local similarity measure. The resulting sparsely sampled vector field is median filtered and interpolated by a Gaussian function to ensure a locally smooth transformation. A hierarchical strategy is adopted to progressively establish local registration associated with image structures at diminishing scale. Simulation studies were carried out to evaluate the proposed algorithm and to determine the robustness of various voxel-based cost functions. Mutual information, normalized mutual information, correlation ratio (CR) and a new symmetric version of CR were evaluated and compared. A T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) image was used to test intra-modality registration. Proton density and T2-weighted MR images of the same subject were used to evaluate inter-modality registration. The proposed algorithm was tested on the 2D MR images distorted by known deformations and 3D images simulating inter-subject distortions. We studied the robustness of cost functions with respect to image sampling. Results indicate that the symmetric CR gives comparable registration to mutual information in intra- and inter-modality tasks at full sampling and is superior to mutual information in registering sparsely sampled images.     

An Image Rendering Technique for Sliced-geometries Using MITK

Software for medical image analysis and visualization is an important tool in medical research and diagnosis.Development and usage of medical image processing toolkit have become an important research trend.It is a fundamental task to master their image rendering principles and data organization mode in order to use these toolkits.MITK(Medical Imaging Toolkit,from www.mitk.net) with the important characteristics of inheritance and virtual function uses the Object-Oriented design approach.This paper researches the data organization mode and coordinate translation of MITK and presents an algorithm based on OpenGL to rewrite the image-rendering function of MITK.Using the algorithm,the rewritten rendering function has the same rendering effect as the one in MITK.By rewriting the virtual image-rendering function and using the capability that a view window can load many data model,users can neatly render various graphics and images.Though the researches of this paper are based on the mitkImageModel class,the algorithm also is fit for 2D "widgets"class.     

生物组织连续切片图像的配准与三维显示

连续组织切片图像的的三维重建和显示，是一种重要的形态学研究方法，三维重建过程中，首先要对连续切片图像进行配准，本文首先介绍了作者提出的用于自动图像配准的分割一计数法，该方法通过对图像做简单的阈值分割，将优化的准则函数定义为图像的联合直方图特定区域上的计数值，大大加快了配准速度，然后将该方法用于小鼠胚胎的连续切片图像配准，得到空间上配准的三维数据场，为三维显示奠定了基础，最后给了一个初步的表面绘制结果。     

An adaptive algorithm for the detection of microcalcifications in simulated low-dose mammography

This paper uses the task of microcalcification detection as a benchmark problem to assess the potential for dose reduction in x-ray mammography. We present the results of a newly developed algorithm for detection of microcalcifications as a case study for a typical commercial film-screen system (Kodak Min-R 2000/2190). The first part of the paper deals with the simulation of dose reduction for film-screen mammography based on a physical model of the imaging process. Use of a more sensitive film-screen system is expected to result in additional smoothing of the image. We introduce two different models of that behaviour, called moderate and strong smoothing. We then present an adaptive, model-based microcalcification detection algorithm. Comparing detection results with ground-truth images obtained under the supervision of an expert radiologist allows us to establish the soundness of the detection algorithm. We measure the performance on the dose-reduced images in order to assess the loss of information due to dose reduction. It turns out that the smoothing behaviour has a strong influence on detection rates. For moderate smoothing. a dose reduction by 25% has no serious influence on the detection results. whereas a dose reduction by 50% already entails a marked deterioration of the performance. Strong smoothing generally leads to an unacceptable loss of image quality. The test results emphasize the impact of the more sensitive film-screen system and its characteristics on the problem of assessing the potential for dose reduction in film-screen mammography. The general approach presented in the paper can be adapted to fully digital mammography.     

基于改进最大互信息法的MR切片图像配准

医学图像配准是医学图像处理分析的关键步骤,是医学图像融合首先要解决的问题。本研究的主要目的是实现帕金森患者深脑部刺激手术前后MR图像的配准。将互距离引入互信息测度,实现手术前后两组MR切片图像的对应匹配,然后将对应的两组MR切片系列重建三维图像,最后用Powell优化算法对重建的三维图像进行配准。通过术前术后MR三维图像的配准,可以定量的分析手术后植入电极和手术前丘脑底核的相对位置关系,从而实现对深脑部刺激手术质量的科学评估。     

Current constrained voltage scaled reconstruction (CCVSR) algorithm for MR-EIT and its performance with different probing current patterns

Conventional injected-current electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques can be combined to reconstruct high resolution true conductivity images. The magnetic flux density distribution generated by the internal current density distribution is extracted from MR phase images. This information is used to form a fine detailed conductivity image using an Ohm's law based update equation. The reconstructed conductivity image is assumed to differ from the true image by a scale factor. EIT surface potential measurements are then used to scale the reconstructed image in order to find the true conductivity values. This process is iterated until a stopping criterion is met. Several simulations are carried out for opposite and cosine current injection patterns to select the best current injection pattern for a 2D thorax model. The contrast resolution and accuracy of the proposed algorithm are also studied. In all simulation studies, realistic noise models for voltage and magnetic flux density measurements are used. It is shown that, in contrast to the conventional EIT techniques, the proposed method has the capability of reconstructing conductivity images with uniform and high spatial resolution. The spatial resolution is limited by the larger element size of the finite element mesh and twice the magnetic resonance image pixel size.     

3D Elastic Registration of Ultrasound Images Based on Skeleton Feature

INTRODUCTION The development of3D imaging has attracted great attention in the field of med-ical imaging by recent years.A majority of investigations in ultrasound imaging sys-tem have also focused on3D ultrasound image reconstruct system.All those recon-struct system based on recombination of2D images has a same condition that spatialposition of object being scanned remains unchanged as time passed by.Only in thisway,3D figure of human’s organ can be reconstructed by2D images obtained…     

A filtering approach to image reconstruction in 3D SPECT

We present a new approach to three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction using analytical inversion of the exponential divergent beam transform, which can serve as a mathematical model for cone-beam 3D SPECT imaging. We apply a circular cone-beam scan and assume constant attenuation inside a convex area with a known boundary, which is satisfactory in brain imaging. The reconstruction problem is reduced to an image restoration problem characterized by a shift-variant point spread function which is given analytically. The method requires two computation steps: backprojection and filtering. The modulation transfer function (MTF) of the filter is derived by means of an original methodology using the 2D Laplace transform. The filter is implemented in the frequency domain and requires 2D Fourier transform of transverse slices. In order to obtain a shift-invariant cone-beam projection-backprojection operator we resort to an approximation, assuming that the collimator has a relatively large focal length. Nevertheless, numerical experiments demonstrate surprisingly good results for detectors with relatively short focal lengths. The use of a wavelet-based filtering algorithm greatly improves the stability to Poisson noise.     

Interslice coding for medical three-dimensional images using an adaptive mode selection technique in wavelet transform domain

In this article the authors propose a novel interslice coding algorithm especially appropriate for medical 3-dimensional (3D) images. The proposed algorithm is based on a video coding algorithm using motion estimation/compensation and transform coding. In the algorithm, warping is adopted for motion compensation. Then, by using adaptive mode selection, an MC residual image and original image are mixed up in the wavelet transform domain for improvement in coding performance. The mixed image is then compressed by the zerotree coding method. It is proven that the adaptive mode selection technique in the wavelet transform domain is very useful for medical 3D image coding. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides good performance, regardless of interslice distance, and is prospective for medical 3D image compression.     

Automated localization of implanted seeds in 3D TRUS images used for prostate brachytherapy

An algorithm has been developed in this paper to localize implanted radioactive seeds in 3D ultrasound images for a dynamic intraoperative brachytherapy procedure. Segmentation of the seeds is difficult, due to their small size in relatively low quality of transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images. In this paper, intraoperative seed segmentation in 3D TRUS images is achieved by performing a subtraction of the image before the needle has been inserted, and the image after the seeds have been implanted. The seeds are searched in a "local" space determined by the needle position and orientation information, which are obtained from a needle segmentation algorithm. To test this approach, 3D TRUS images of the agar and chicken tissue phantoms were obtained. Within these phantoms, dummy seeds were implanted. The seed locations determined by the seed segmentation algorithm were compared with those obtained from a volumetric cone-beam flat-panel micro-CT scanner and human observers. Evaluation of the algorithm showed that the rms error in determining the seed locations using the seed segmentation algorithm was 0.98 mm in agar phantoms and 1.02 mm in chicken phantoms.     

Non-iterative methods incorporating a priori source distribution and data information for suppression of image noise and artefacts in 3D SPECT

Non-iterative methods have been developed for image reconstruction in 3D SPECT with uniform attenuation and distance-dependent spatial resolution. It was observed that these methods can, in general, be susceptible to data noise and other errors, yielding conspicuous image artefacts. In this work, we developed and evaluated a regularized inverse-filtering approach for effective suppression of noise and artefacts in 3D SPECT images without significantly compromising image resolution. The proposed approach allows the incorporation of a priori random image field and data information and can thus robustly control the degree of suppression of noise and artefacts in 3D SPECT images. Using computer simulations, we evaluated and compared quantitatively images reconstructed from data sets of various noise levels by the use of the proposed methods and the existing non-iterative methods. These numerical results clearly demonstrated that the proposed regularized inverse-filtering approach can effectively suppress image noise and artefacts that plague the existing non-iterative methods, thus yielding quantitatively more accurate 3D SPECT images. The proposed regularized inverse-filtering approach can also be generalized to other imaging modalities.     

组织多普勒超声心脏图像的动态三维重建

传统的超声心脏图像三维重建技术只限于描述三维及动态三维解剖结构,不能对心脏动态功能做出准确有效的评价。本研究将建立组织多普勒超声心脏图像的动态三维重建方法,通过超声医学图像三维重建技术和组织多普勒超声成像技术的结合,重建心脏运动的动态三维加速度场,为心脏功能的准确评价提供一条新的途径。论文解决了加速度矢量场重建过程中关键的矢量插值和融合显像的问题,从组织多普勒加速度图像中分别重建心肌运动三维加速度场和三维解剖结构,并进行融合显像。试验结果证明了二者之间相对空间位置正确,该方法可以为心脏疾病的诊断和心脏功能的评价提供更多信息,在心脏靶点起搏和心内消融等领域有潜在的应用价值。