A Literature Survey of Ultrasound and Computed Tomography-Based Cardiac Image Registration

Abstract

A literature survey of Ultrasound and Computed Tomography (CT) -based cardiac image registration is presented in this article. We aim to provide the reader with a preliminary discussion into the area of cardiac image registration, as well as to briefly describe the major contributions in the field and present collective and comprehensive knowledge as guidelines for beginners in this field to initiate their research. We also highlight the major challenges where CT and Ultrasound are the modalities concerned in fusion and registration tasks. Further, we found that a majority of research in medical image registration are suitably categorized based on these factors: anatomy, imaging modality and image registration methods. Our focus in the article is on Ultrasound-CT image registration of the heart, where numerous algorithms under this scope have been elaborated. Overall, multimodal cardiac image registration offers great benefit for image visualization systems during surgery. It facilitates accurate alignment of the patient’s heart imagery acquired via different imaging sensors, without extensive user involvement and interception. Through registration, the combined anatomical and functional information from multiple modalities may be derived by the medical practitioner to aid in physiological understanding, disease monitoring, clinical treatment and diagnostic purposes.