Medical image elastic registration smoothed by unconstrained optimized thin-plate spline
Zhang, Y.; Li, S.; Chen, W.; Liu, Z.
Sheng Wu Yi Xue Gong Cheng Xue Za Zhi 20(4): 720-723
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 1001-5515 PMID: 14716886 Document Number: 556108
Elastic registration of medical image is an important subject in medical image processing. Previous work has concentrated on selecting the corresponding landmarks manually and then using thin-plate spline interpolating to gain the elastic transformation. However, the landmarks extraction is always prone to error, which will influence the registration results. Localizing the landmarks manually is also difficult and time-consuming. We the optimization theory to improve the thin-plate spline interpolation, and based on it, used an automatic method to extract the landmarks. Combining these two steps, we have proposed an automatic, exact and robust registration method and have gained satisfactory registration results.