Non-iterative multi-modal partial view to full view image registration using local phase-based image projections

Abstract

Accurate registration of patient anatomy, obtained from intra-operative ultrasound (US) and preoperative computed tomography (CT) images, is an essential step to a successful US-guided computer assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS). Most state-of-the-art registration methods in CAOS require either significant manual interaction from the user or are not robust to the typical US artifacts. Furthermore, one of the major stumbling blocks facing existing methods is the requirement of an optimization procedure during the registration, which is time consuming and generally breaks when the initial misalignment between the two registering data sets is large. Finally, due to the limited field of view of US imaging, obtaining scans of the full anatomy is problematic, which causes difficulties during registration. In this paper, we present a new method that registers local phase-based bone features in frequency domain using image projections calculated from three-dimensional (3D) radon transform. The method is fully automatic, non-iterative, and requires no initial alignment between the two registering datasets. We also show the method's capability in registering partial view US data to full view CT data. Experiments, carried out on a phantom and six clinical pelvis scans, show an average 0.8 mm root-mean-square registration error. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.