Bi - Domain Intraoperative Registration of Vessels

Abstract

Abstract The segmentation and registration of structures are gaining importance due to the increasing demand of automated image enhancement and understanding. Especially in medicine and life science, assistance systems could have a large impact on diagnosis, treatment and quality control. Dye driven procedures, such as fluorescence imaging with Indocyanine green (ICG), are nowadays indispensable because they enhance contrast, reveal structures and deliver the operator with important information. The contact free ICG angiography is providing the surgeon spatial and temporal information on blood flow within a vessel. The processing of those information is done manually or semi automated but is very helpful for the surgeon. Extending the degree of automatism, the amount of information processed and even augment or transfer it into another domain could deliver the operator useful support and improve surgical work flow. Using, analyzing and transferring those information from ICG-IR domain into the RGB domain is the focus of this project. We are introducing a vessel registration method in the RGB domain driven by the spatial fluorescence behavior of the vessel in the ICG-IR domain. The method includes Superpixel based segmentation of the vessel in the ICG-IR domain, the spatial gradient based transfer and registration in the RGB domain and the continuous segmentation of the vessel in a RGB video. This paper show a proof of concept of the method. The results show an successful inter domain information transfer and registration of the vessel. Further tracking of the vessel over all frames is possible. Nevertheless limitations are revealed and discussed.