SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COREGISTRATION AND ANALYSIS OF NON-CONCURRENT DIFFUSE OPTICAL AND MAGNETIC RESONANCE BREAST IMAGES

• US 20080292164A1
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Siemens Medical Solutions USA Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Corporate Research Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Azar, Fred S., Yodh, Arjun G.
• Application Number:
  US11/845,183
• Publication Number:
  US 20080292164A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/131
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0091 for mammography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/055 involving electronic [EMR] or nuclear [NMR] magnetic resonance, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4312 Breast evaluation or disorder diagnosis A61B5/0091 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/708 Breast positioning means
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10088 Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10101 Optical tomography; Optical coherence tomography [OCT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20068 Projection on vertical or horizontal image axis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20072 Graph-based image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20221 Image fusion; Image merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30068 Mammography; Breast
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30096 Tumor; Lesion
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/187 involving region growing; involving region merging; involving connected component labelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/33 using feature-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/35 using statistical methods

Abstract

A method for joint analysis of non-concurrent magnetic resonance (MR) and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) images of the breast includes providing a digitized MR breast image volume comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a 3-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels, providing a digitized DOT breast dataset comprising a plurality of physiological values corresponding to a finite set of points, segmenting the breast MR image volume to separate tumorous tissue from non-tumorous tissue, registering a DOT breast dataset and the MR image volume and fusing said registered DOT and MR datasets, wherein said fused dataset is adapted for analysis.

Claims

1. A method for joint analysis of non-concurrent magnetic resonance (MR) and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) images of the breast, comprising the steps of:

providing a digitized MR breast image volume comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a 3-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels;

providing a digitized DOT breast dataset comprising a plurality of physiological values corresponding to a finite set of points;

segmenting said breast MR image volume to separate tumorous tissue from non-tumorous tissue;

registering said DOT breast dataset and said MR image volume; and

fusing said registered DOT and MR datasets, wherein said fused dataset is adapted for analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said physiological values include one or more of total hemoglobin concentration, blood oxygenation saturation, and light scattering data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein segmenting said breast MR image volume comprises:

selecting at least one axial, at least one coronal, and at least one sagittal slice of said MR image volume;

selecting 3 different seed points in each selected slice, said seed points representative of fatty breast tissue, non-fatty breast tissue, and non-breast tissue;

determining a probability that a random walker starting at an unselected point reaches one of said selected seed points; and

labeling each unselected point according to the seed point with a highest probability to create a mask file, wherein each point in each slice is labeled as fatty breast tissue, non-fatty breast tissue, or non-breast tissue.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising resampling said DOT dataset into a 3D volume of voxels corresponding to said MR grid of voxels.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising incorporating said mask file into said DOT dataset.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein registering said DOT breast dataset to said MR image volume comprises:

generating a 2D sagittal projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT sagittal signature and said MR sagittal signature;

generating a 2D coronal projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT coronal signature and said MR coronal signature;

generating a 2D axial projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT axial signature and said MR axial signature, wherein said 3D registration mapping is defined in terms of said 2D sagittal, coronal, and axial registrations.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said steps of generating a 2D projection signature and registering said signatures for each of said sagittal, coronal, and axial projections is repeated for a predetermined number of iterations.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said 2D projection signatures are generated from a maximum intensity projection.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein one of said DOT and MR signatures is a moving signature and the other is a fixed signature, and wherein registering a DOT signature and an MR signature comprises:

initializing deformation variables for scaling said moving signature vertically and horizontally, translating said moving signature vertically and horizontally, and rotating said moving signature, and initializing a divider;

computing a initial similarity measure that quantifies the difference between the DOT and MR datasets;

deforming said moving signature according to each of said deformation variables; and

estimating, for each deformation of said moving signature, the similarity measure between said deformed moving signature and said fixed signature, and incorporating said estimated measure into said registration if said similarity measure has increased.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising multiplying said divider by a multiplication factor, dividing said deformation variables by said divider, and repeating said steps of deforming said moving signature and estimating said similarity measure until said similarity measure converges.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said moving signature is the DOT signature, and said fixed signature is the MR signature.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein an estimate of said registration maximizes a similarity measure

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the similarity metric for comparing signatures is mutual information, S²=h(I_I)+h(I_J)−

h(I_I,I_J), wherein I_I and I_J represent the MR and DOT datasets, h(I) is an entropy of a image intensity I defined as

14. The method of claim 6, wherein generating said projection signatures and registering said signatures is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU).

15. A method for joint analysis of non-concurrent magnetic resonance (MR) and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) images of the breast, comprising the steps of:

providing a digitized MR breast image volume dataset comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a 3-dimensional (3D) grid of points;

providing a digitized DOT breast dataset comprising a plurality of physiological values corresponding to a finite set of points;

computing 2D projection images from said DOT and MR datasets for a plurality of projection geometries,

calculating a similarity measure for each pair of DOT and MR 2D projection images to estimate a transformation that registers said DOT projection to said MR projection; and

repeating said 2D registrations to estimate a 3D registration parameters of said DOT and MR datasets, wherein said registered DOT and MR datasets are adapted for a joint analysis.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

segmenting said breast MR image volume to separate tumorous tissue from non-tumorous tissue;

creating a mask file labeling each point as fatty breast tissue, non-fatty breast tissue, or non-breast tissue;

resampling said DOT dataset into a 3D volume of voxels corresponding to said MR grid of voxels, wherein said mask file is incorporated into said DOT dataset, and fusing said registered DOT and MR datasets.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein said projection geometries comprise a 2D sagittal projection from each dataset, a 2D coronal projection from each dataset, and a 2D axial projection from each dataset, wherein said projections are computed from a maximum intensity projection.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein calculating a similarity measure for each pair of 2D projections comprises:

initializing deformation variables for scaling said DOT projection vertically and horizontally, translating said DOT projection vertically and horizontally, and rotating said DOT projection, and initializing a divider;

computing a initial similarity measure that quantifies the difference between the DOT and MR projections;

deforming said DOT projection according to each of said deformation variables;

estimating, for each deformation of said DOT projection, the similarity measure between said deformed DOT projection and said MR projection, and incorporating said estimated measure into said registration if said similarity measure has increased;

multiplying said divider by a multiplication factor and dividing said deformation variables by said divider; and

repeating said steps of deforming said DOT projection and estimating said similarity measure until said similarity measure converges.

19. A program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform the method steps for joint analysis of non-concurrent magnetic resonance (MR) and diffuse optical tomography (DOT) images of the breast, said method comprising the steps of:

providing a digitized MR breast image volume comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a 3-dimensional (3D) grid of voxels;

providing a digitized DOT breast dataset comprising a plurality of physiological values corresponding to a finite set of points;

segmenting said breast MR image volume to separate tumorous tissue from non-tumorous tissue;

registering said DOT breast dataset and said MR image volume; and

fusing said registered DOT and MR datasets, wherein said fused dataset is adapted for analysis.

20. The computer readable program storage device of claim 19, wherein said physiological values include one or more of total hemoglobin concentration, blood oxygenation saturation, and light scattering data.

21. The computer readable program storage device of claim 19, wherein segmenting said breast MR image volume comprises:

selecting at least one axial, at least one coronal, and at least one sagittal slice of said MR image volume;

selecting 3 different seed points in each selected slice, said seed points representative of fatty breast tissue, non-fatty breast tissue, and non-breast tissue;

determining a probability that a random walker starting at an unselected point reaches one of said selected seed points; and

labeling each unselected point according to the seed point with a highest probability to create a mask file, wherein each point in each slice is labeled as fatty breast tissue, non-fatty breast tissue, or non-breast tissue.

22. The computer readable program storage device of claim 21, the method further comprising resampling said DOT dataset into a 3D volume of voxels corresponding to said MR grid of voxels.

23. The computer readable program storage device of claim 22, the method further comprising incorporating said mask file into said DOT dataset.

24. The computer readable program storage device of claim 19, wherein registering said DOT breast dataset to said MR image volume comprises:

generating a 2D sagittal projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT sagittal signature and said MR sagittal signature;

generating a 2D coronal projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT coronal signature and said MR coronal signature;

generating a 2D axial projection signature from said MR image and from said DOT dataset;

registering said DOT axial signature and said MR axial signature, wherein said 3D registration mapping is defined in terms of said 2D sagittal, coronal, and axial registrations.

25. The computer readable program storage device of claim 24, wherein said steps of generating a 2D projection signature and registering said signatures for each of said sagittal, coronal, and axial projections is repeated for a pre-determined number of iterations.

26. The computer readable program storage device of claim 24, wherein said 2D projection signatures are generated from a maximum intensity projection.

27. The computer readable program storage device of claim 24, wherein one of said DOT and MR signatures is a moving signature and the other is a fixed signature, and wherein registering a DOT signature and an MR signature comprises:

initializing deformation variables for scaling said moving signature vertically and horizontally, translating said moving signature vertically and horizontally, and rotating said moving signature, and initializing a divider;

computing a initial similarity measure that quantifies the difference between the DOT and MR datasets;

deforming said moving signature according to each of said deformation variables; and

estimating, for each deformation of said moving signature, the similarity measure between said deformed moving signature and said fixed signature, and incorporating said estimated measure into said registration if said similarity measure has increased.

28. The computer readable program storage device of claim 27, the method further comprising multiplying said divider by a multiplication factor, dividing said deformation variables by said divider, and repeating said steps of deforming said moving signature and estimating said similarity measure until said similarity measure converges.

29. The computer readable program storage device of claim 27, wherein said moving signature is the DOT signature, and said fixed signature is the MR signature.

30. The computer readable program storage device of claim 27, wherein an estimate of said registration maximizes a similarity measure

31. The computer readable program storage device of claim 30, wherein the similarity metric for comparing signatures is mutual information, S²=h(I_I)+h(I_J)−

h(I_I,I_J), wherein I_I and I_J represent the MR and DOT datasets, h(I) is an entropy of a image intensity I defined as

32. The computer readable program storage device of claim 24, wherein generating said projection signatures and registering said signatures is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU).