조영 전후의 폐 CT 영상 정합을 위한 특징 기반의 비강체 정합 기법

Abstract

In this paper, a feature-based registration technique is proposed for pre-contrast and post-contrast lung CT images. It utilizes three dimensional(3-D) features with their descriptors and estimates feature correspondences by nearest neighborhood matching in the feature space. We design a transformation model between the input image pairs using a free form deformation(FFD) which is based on B-splines. Registration is achieved by minimizing an energy function incorporating the smoothness of FFD and the correspondence information through a non-linear gradient conjugate method. To deal with outliers in feature matching, our energy model integrates a robust estimator which discards outliers effectively by iteratively reducing a radius of confidence in the minimization process. Performance evaluation was carried out in terms of accuracy and efficiency using seven pairs of lung CT images of clinical practice. For a quantitative assessment, a radiologist specialized in thorax manually placed landmarks on each CT image pair. In comparative evaluation to a conventional feature-based registration method, our algorithm showed improved performances in both accuracy and efficiency.