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Numerical algorithms for spatial registration of line fiducials from cross‐sectional images
Author(s) -
Lee Sangyoon,
Fichtinger Gabor,
Chirikjian Gregory S.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.1493777
Subject(s) - fiducial marker , robustness (evolution) , computer science , image registration , computer vision , artificial intelligence , algorithm , medical imaging , image (mathematics) , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
We present several numerical algorithms for six‐degree‐of‐freedom rigid‐body registration of line fiducial objects to their marks in cross‐sectional planar images, such as those obtained in CT and MRI, given the correspondence between the marks and line fiducials. The area of immediate application is frame‐based stereotactic procedures, such as radiosurgery and functional neurosurgery. The algorithms are also suitable to problems where the fiducial pattern moves inside the imager, as is the case in robot‐assisted image‐guided surgical applications. We demonstrate the numerical methods on clinical CT images and computer‐generated data and compare their performance in terms of robustness to missing data, robustness to noise, and speed. The methods show two unique strengths: (1) They provide reliable registration of incomplete fiducial patterns when up to two‐thirds of the total fiducials are missing from the image; and (2) they are applicable to an arbitrary combination of line fiducials without algorithmic modification. The average speed of the fastest algorithm is 0.3236 s for six fiducial lines in real CT data in a Matlab implementation.