A New Image Similarity Metric for Improving Deformation Consistency in Graph-Based Groupwise Image Registration

Zhenyu Tang, Pew Thian Yap, Dinggang Shen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Graph-based groupwise image registration (G-GIR) aims to register a group of input images accurately without any bias. In G-GIR, an image similarity metric (ISM) is used to construct a graph that links similar images with graph edges. From the graph, a group center image and the shortest paths linking it to all other images can be determined. The deformation field aligning each image to the group center image can be obtained by composing sub-deformation fields that come from registration of adjacent images along the corresponding shortest path. The majority of ISMs used in G-GIR are based on image intensity. Since image intensity can be ambiguous and is not directly related to deformation directions, inconsistency problem in the sub-deformation fields along the shortest paths can occur. The word ''inconsistency'' mentioned here refers to the directions of deformation vectors in the sub-deformation fields along each shortest path are significantly different or even opposite at corresponding locations. Such problem can make G-GIR inefficient and easily to be trapped in local minimum. In this paper, we propose a new ISM for G-GIR, by which the consistency in the sub-deformation fields along the shortest paths can be significantly improved. We evaluate our method in comparison with three state-of-The-Art ISMs using a common G-GIR framework. The experimental results with both toy and real images show that our method significantly improves registration accuracy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8566014
Pages (from-to)2192-2199
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
Volume66
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Aug

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 1964-2012 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Graph
  • MR brain images
  • groupwise image registration
  • image similarity metric

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomedical Engineering

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