Point-to-point registration of non-rigid medical images using localelastic transformation methods

摘要

Although a considerable amount of research has been devoted to theregistration of medical images, a good proportion of this has beenperformed on rigid regions of the anatomy. This has tended to limit thepractical value of such research. The registration of medical imageswhich are non-rigid in nature is a seemingly difficult and not fullyinvestigated problem. This paper presents an elastic transformationmethod which is used to perform matching of non-rigid medical images,that is, two-dimensional images of a region of the body such as thethorax or abdomen which exhibits a high level of elasticity. Some formsof elastic transformation may be more localized in scope than others,which leads to the categorization of elastic transformation methods intolocal and semi-local methods. This paper demonstrates the use of localelastic spatial transformations in matching non-rigid medical images.These transformations are illustrated by matching corresponding computedtomography and magnetic resonance images of the thorax