Abstract
We present several numerical algorithms for six-degree-of-freedom rigid-body registration of line fiducial objects to their marks in cross-sectional planar images, such as those obtained in CT and MRI, given the correspondence between the marks and line fiducials. The area of immediate application is frame-based stereotactic procedures, such as radiosurgery and functional neurosurgery. The algorithms are also suitable to problems where the fiducial pattern moves inside the imager, as is the case in robot-assisted image-guided surgical applications. We demonstrate the numerical methods on clinical CT images and computer-generated data and compare their performance in terms of robustness to missing data, robustness to noise, and speed. The methods show two unique strengths: (1) They provide reliable registration of incomplete fiducial patterns when up to two-thirds of the total fiducials are missing from the image; and (2) they are applicable to an arbitrary combination of line fiducials without algorithmic modification. The average speed of the fastest algorithm is 0.3236 s for six fiducial lines in real CT data in a Matlab implementation.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1881-1891 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Medical Physics |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1 2002 |
Keywords
- Line fiducials
- Numerical algorithms
- Robustness
- Stereotactic registration
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biophysics