Abstract
The purpose of this study is an application of scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm to stitch the cervical-thoracic-lumbar (C-T-L) spine magnetic resonance (MR) images to provide a view of the entire spine in a single image. All MR images were acquired with fast spin echo (FSE) pulse sequence using two MR scanners (1.5 T and 3.0 T). The stitching procedures for each part of spine MR image were performed and implemented on a graphic user interface (GUI) configuration. Moreover, the stitching process is performed in two categories; manual point-to-point (mPTP) selection that performed by user specified corresponding matching points, and automated point-to-point (aPTP) selection that performed by SIFT algorithm. The stitched images using SIFT algorithm showed fine registered results and quantitatively acquired values also indicated little errors compared with commercially mounted stitching algorithm in MRI systems. Our study presented a preliminary validation of the SIFT algorithm application to MRI spine images, and the results indicated that the proposed approach can be performed well for the improvement of diagnosis. We believe that our approach can be helpful for the clinical application and extension of other medical imaging modalities for image stitching.
Highlights
The vertebral column is an anatomical structure composed of cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine (C-T-L spine), and sacrum and coccyx
In the computer vision and pattern recognition researches, the automatic detection of bilateral symmetry is a challenging task and it is currently have been overcome by the application of scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) to detect the bilateral symmetry in object images [13, 14]
In this study, we proposed a C-T-L spine magnetic resonance (MR) images stitching process based on the SIFT algorithm on graphic user interface (GUI) configuration for convenience of user interface and implementation
Summary
The vertebral column is an anatomical structure composed of cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine (C-T-L spine), and sacrum and coccyx. Diagnostic evaluation of these structures is important for assessing pathology and a crucial tool to achieve this goal is imaging, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Image stitching method that made a single image through the separate images was widely used to perform the combining images, effectively [3, 4]. Using the multi-channel phased array C-T-L spine coil is enabled to acquire the C-T-L spine image at once, the use of image stitching method is necessary in C-T-L spine image and and in whole-body MR image acquisition.
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