Landmark-based 3d fusion of SPECT and CT images

Abstract

In this paper we present interactive visualization procedures for registration of SPECT and CT images based on landmarks. Because of the poor anatomic detail available in many SPECT images, registration of SPECT images with other modalities often requires the use of external markers. These markers may correspond to anatomic structures identifiable in the other modality image. In this work, we present a method to nonrigidly register SPECT and CT images based on automatic marker localization and interactive anatomic localization using 3D surface renderings of skin. The images are registered in 3D by fitting low order polynomials which are constrained to be near rigid. The method developed here exploits 3D information to attain greater accuracy and reduces the amount of time needed for expert interaction.