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ABSTRACT: Advances in ultrasound system development have led to a substantial improvement of image quality and to an increased use of ultrasound in clinical practice. Nevertheless, ultrasound attenuation and shadowing artifacts cannot be entirely avoided and continue to challenge medical image computing algorithms. We introduce a method for estimating a per-pixel confidence in the information depicted by ultrasound images, referred to as an ultrasound confidence map, which emphasizes uncertainty in attenuated and/or shadow regions. Our main novelty is the modeling of the confidence estimation problem within a random walks framework by taking into account ultrasound specific constraints. The solution to the random walks equilibrium problem is global and takes the entire image content into account. As a result, our method is applicable to a variety of ultrasound image acquisition setups. We demonstrate the applicability of our confidence maps for ultrasound shadow detection, 3D freehand ultrasound reconstruction, and multi-modal image registration.
Medical image analysis 08/2012; 16(6):1101-12. · 3.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Registration of pre-operative CT datasets to intra-operative 3D freehand ultrasound has been of high interest for computer assisted orthopedic surgery. Feature-based registration relies on an accurate detection of the bone surface in the B-mode ultrasound images. In this work we present a fully automatic bone detection approach for US. The pre-operative CT is utilized to create a patient-specific bone model for our joint detection-registration framework. The model provides a geometric constraint for accurate and robust detection. Simultaneously to the detection, our method yields a close estimate of the rigid transformation from US to CT, which can be used as an initialization for further refinement through sophisticated intensity-/feature-based registration methods. We evaluated our approach on datasets of the human femur acquired in a cadaver study and demonstrate a mean bone detection error of below 0.4mm.
Conference proceedings: ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Conference 08/2012; 2012:2664-7.
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ABSTRACT: We present image-based methods for tracking teeth in a video image with respect to a CT scan of the jaw, in order to enable a novel light-weight augmented reality (AR) system in orthodontistry. Its purpose is guided bracket placement in orthodontic correction. In this context, our goal is to determine the position of the patient maxilla and mandible in a video image solely based on a CT scan. This is suitable for image guidance through an overlay of the video image with the planned position of brackets in a monocular AR system. Our tracking algorithm addresses the contradicting requirements of robustness, accuracy and performance in two problem-specific formulations. First, we exploit a distance-based modulation of two iso-surfaces from the CT image to approximate the appearance of the gum line. Second, back-projection of previous video frames to an iso-surface is used to account for recently placed brackets. In combination, this novel algorithm allowed us to track several sequences of three patient videos of real procedures, despite difficult lighting conditions. Paired with a systematic evaluation, we were able to show practical feasibility of such a system.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2012; 15(Pt 2):601-8.
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MICCAI 2012; 01/2012
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ABSTRACT: We present the first system for measurement of proximal isovelocity surface area (PISA) on a 3D ultrasound acquisition using modified ultrasound hardware, volumetric image segmentation and a simple efficient workflow. Accurate measurement of the PISA in 3D flow through a valve is an emerging method for quantitatively assessing cardiac valve regurgitation and function. Current state of the art protocols for assessing regurgitant flow require laborious and time consuming user interaction with the data, where a precise execution is crucial for an accurate diagnosis. We propose a new improved 3D PISA workflow that is initialized interactively with two points, followed by fully automatic segmentation of the valve annulus and isovelocity surface area computation. Our system is first validated against several in vitro phantoms to verify the calculations of surface area, orifice area and regurgitant flow. Finally, we use our system to compare orifice area calculations obtained from in vivo patient imaging measurements to an independent measurement and then use our system to successfully classify patients into mild-moderate regurgitation and moderate-severe regurgitation categories.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2011; 14(Pt 3):512-9.
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ABSTRACT: Cone-beam X-Ray systems strictly depend on the imaged object being stationary over the entire acquisition process. Even slight patient motion can affect the quality of the final 3D reconstruction. It would be desirable to be able to discover and model patient motion right from the actual projection images, in order to take it into account during reconstruction. However, while the source-detector arrangement is rotating around the patient, it is difficult to separate this motion from the additional patient motion. We present a novel similarity metric for successive X-Ray projections, which is able to distinguish between the expected rotational and additional sources of motion. We quantitatively evaluate it on simulated dental cone-beam X-Rays and qualitatively demonstrate its performance on real patient data.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2011; 14(Pt 1):516-23.
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ABSTRACT: The simulation of ultrasound wave propagation is of high interest in fields as ultrasound system development and therapeutic ultrasound. From a computational point of view the requirements for realistic simulations are immense with processing time reaching even an entire day. In this work we present a framework for fast ultrasound image simulation covering the imaging pipeline from the initial pulse transmission to the final image formation. The propagation of ultrasound waves is modeled with the Westervelt equation, which is solved explicitly with a Finite Difference scheme. Solving this scheme in parallel on the Graphics Processing Unit allows us to simulate realistic ultrasound images in a short time.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2010; 13(Pt 1):243-50.
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ABSTRACT: Multi-modality alignment of CT and ultrasound adds value to diagnostic examinations, as well as treatment planning and execution of various clinical procedures. Particularly automatic image-based alignment of such data is challenging, mostly because both modalities have very different imaging physics and characteristics. We present a method for dense-field deformable registration of CT and 3D ultrasound. Compared to global (rigid) alignment, this is more difficult to solve, because modality-specific difference in local anatomic appearance can result in incorrect displacements. We use a simulation of ultrasonic effects based on CT information, taking the current estimate of the deformation field into account to properly address orientation-dependent imaging artifacts. This is combined with a robust multi-channel local similarity metric, driving a variational registration framework. Because of the high computational demand, an efficient GPU-based implementation is used. Preliminary results are shown on data from a number of hepatic cancer patients. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a non-linear mapping of CT and 3D B-mode ultrasound is established in a computationally practical and fully automatic manner.
Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 14-17 April, 2010; 01/2010
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ABSTRACT: This paper describes a novel method for improving the navigation and guidance of devices and catheters in electrophysiology and interventional cardiology procedures using volumetric data fusion. The clinical workflow includes the acquisition and reconstruction of CT data from a C-arm X-ray angiographic system and the real-time acquisition of volumetric ultrasound datasets with a new intracardiac real-time 3D ultrasound catheter. Mono- and multi-modal volumetric registration methods, as well as visualization modes, that are suitable for real-time fusion are described, which are the key components of this work. Evaluation on phantom and in-vivo animal data shows that it is feasible to register and track the motion of real-time 3D intracardiac ultrasound in C-arm CT.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2009; 12(Pt 1):9-16.
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Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin 2009: Algorithmen - Systeme - Anwendungen, Proceedings des Workshops vom 22. bis 25. März 2009 in Heidelberg; 01/2009
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ABSTRACT: Recent US systems allow the real-time acquisition of volume data, either by freehand 3D techniques or novel transducer hardware. However, the acquisition of large volumes is limited by the field of view of the US transducer and anatomical scanning windows into the patient. Mosaicing of several 3D US scans has been proposed to generate large US volumes. Still, US imaging specific characteristics and artifacts make it challenging to create high quality mosaics. For many clinical cases, especially interventions, additional high quality CT data is available. In this paper we present a novel multi-variate, multi-modal 3D US registration and mosaicing approach, which reduces the effects of ultrasound imaging artifacts on mosaic quality, by incorporating information from co-registered CT.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 01/2009; 12(Pt 1):763-70.
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ABSTRACT: The creation of two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound mosaics is becoming a common clinical practice with a high clinical value. The next step coming along with the increasing availability of 2D array transducers is the creation of three-dimensional mosaics. The correct alignment of multiple ultrasound images is, however, a complex task. In the literature of ultrasound registration, the alignment of two images has been often addressed, but not the alignment of multiple images. Therefore, we propose registration strategies for multiple image alignment and ultrasound specific similarity measures, which are able to cope with problems when aligning ultrasound images.
In this study, we investigate the following strategies for multiple image alignment: pairwise registration with a successive Lie group normalization and simultaneous registration, which urges the usage of multivariate similarity measures. We propose alternative multivariate extensions for similarity measures based on a maximum likelihood framework. Moreover, we take the inherent contamination of ultrasound images by speckle patterns into consideration by using alternative noise models based on multiplicative Rayleigh distributed noise. This leads us to ultrasound-specific similarity measures.
We compare the performances of pairwise and simultaneous registration approaches for the mosaicing scenario. Bivariate similarity measures are highly overlap-dependent, so that they rather favor the total overlap of the images than their correct alignment. Using ultrasound-specific bivariate measures leads to better results; however, a local optimum at the total overlap remains. In contrast, the derived multivariate similarity measures have a clear and single optimum at the correct alignment of the volumes.
The experiments indicate that standard, pairwise registration techniques have problems by aligning multiple ultrasound images with partial overlap. We demonstrate that the usage of an ultrasound specific similarity measure leads to better results for pairwise registration. The highest robustness, however, can be achieved by using simultaneous registration with the developed multivariate similarity measures.
Academic radiology 12/2008; 15(11):1404-15. · 2.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The fusion of tracked ultrasound with CT has benefits for a variety of clinical applications, however extensive manual effort is usually required for correct registration. We developed new methods that allow one to simulate medical ultrasound from CT in real-time, reproducing the majority of ultrasonic imaging effects. They are combined with a robust similarity measure that assesses the correlation of a combination of signals extracted from CT with ultrasound, without knowing the influence of each signal. This serves as the foundation of a fully automatic registration, that aligns a 3D ultrasound sweep with the corresponding tomographic modality using a rigid or an affine transformation model, without any manual interaction. These techniques were evaluated in a study involving 25 patients with indeterminate lesions in liver and kidney. The clinical setup, acquisition and registration workflow is described, along with the evaluation of the registration accuracy with respect to physician-defined Ground Truth. Our new algorithm correctly registers without any manual interaction in 76% of the cases, the average RMS TRE over multiple target lesions throughout the liver is 8.1mm.
Medical image analysis 10/2008; 12(5):577-85. · 3.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Despite rapid advances in interventional imaging, the navigation of a guide wire through abdominal vasculature remains, not only for novice radiologists, a difficult task. Since this navigation is mostly based on 2D fluoroscopic image sequences from one view, the process is slowed down significantly due to missing depth information and patient motion. We propose a novel approach for 3D dynamic roadmapping in deformable regions by predicting the location of the guide wire tip in a 3D vessel model from the tip's 2D location, respiratory motion analysis, and view geometry. In a first step, the method compensates for the apparent respiratory motion in 2D space before backprojecting the 2D guide wire tip into three dimensional space, using a given projection matrix. To countervail the error connected to the projection parameters and the motion compensation, as well as the ambiguity caused by vessel deformation, we establish a statistical framework, which computes a reliable estimate of the guide wire tip location within the 3D vessel model. With this 2D-to-3D transfer, the navigation can be performed from arbitrary viewing angles, disconnected from the static perspective view of the fluoroscopic sequence. Tests on a realistic breathing phantom and on synthetic data with a known ground truth clearly reveal the superiority of our approach compared to naive methods for 3D roadmapping. The concepts and information presented in this paper are based on research and are not commercially available.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 02/2008; 11(Pt 2):668-75.
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ABSTRACT: The creation of 2D ultrasound mosaics is becoming a common clinical practice with a high clinical value. The next step coming
along with the increasing availability of 2D array transducers is the creation of 3D mosaics. In the literature of ultrasound
registration, the alignment of multiple images has not yet been addressed. Therefore, we propose registration strategies,
which are able to cope with problems arising by multiple image alignment. Among others, we use simultaneous registration which urges the usage of multivariate similarity measures. In this paper, we propose alternative multivariate extensions based on a maximum likelihood framework. Experimental results
show the good performance of the proposed registration strategies and similarity measures.
10/2007: pages 327-335;
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ABSTRACT: This paper presents methods and a clinical procedure for integrating B-mode ultrasound images tagged with position information with a planning computed tomography (CT) scan for radiotherapy. A workflow is described that allows the integration of these modalities into the clinic. A surface mapping approach provides a preregistration of the ultrasound image borders onto the patient's skin. Successively, a set of individual ultrasound images from a freehand sweep is chosen by the physician. These images are automatically registered with the planning CT scan using novel intensity-based methods. We put a particular focus on deriving an appropriate similarity measure based on the physical properties and artifacts of ultrasound. A combination of a weighted mutual information term, edge correlation, clamping to the skin surface, and occlusion detection is able to assess the alignment of structures in ultrasound images and information reconstructed from the CT data. We demonstrate the practicality of our methods on five patients with head and neck tumors and cervical lymph node metastases and provide a detailed report on the conducted experiments, including the setup, calibration, acquisition, and verification of our algorithms. The mean target registration error on nine data sets is 3.9 mm. Thus, the additional information about intranodal architecture and fulfillment of malignancy criteria derived from a high-resolution ultrasonography of lymph nodes can be localized and visualized in the CT scan coordinate space and is made available for further radiation treatment planning.
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 07/2007; 26(6):866-79. · 3.64 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Ultramicroscopy, a novel optical tomographic imaging modality related to fluorescence microscopy, allows to acquire cross-sectional slices of small specially prepared biological samples with astounding quality and resolution. However, scattering of the fluorescence light causes the quality to decrease proportional to the depth of the currently imaged plane. Scattering and beam thickness of the excitation laser light cause additional image degradation. We perform a physical simulation of the light scattering in order to define a quantitative function of image quality with respect to depth. This allows us to establish 3D-volumes of quality information in addition to the image data. Volumes are acquired at different orientations of the sample, hence providing complementary regions of high quality. We propose an algorithm for rigid 3D-3D registration of these volumes incorporating voxel quality information, based on maximizing an adapted linear correlation term. The quality ratio of the images is then used, along with the registration result, to create improved volumes of the imaged object. The methods are applied on acquisitions of a mouse brain and mouse embryo to create outstanding three-dimensional reconstructions.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 02/2007; 10(Pt 2):718-25.
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ABSTRACT: We present a new method for blind deconvolution of multiple noisy images blurred by a shift-variant point-spread-function (PSF). We focus on a setting in which several images of the same object are available, and a transformation between these images is known. This setting occurs frequently in biomedical imaging, for example in microscopy or in medical ultrasound imaging. By using the information from multiple observations, we are able to improve the quality of images blurred by a shift-variant filter, without prior knowledge of this filter. Also, in contrast to other work on blind and shift-variant deconvolution, in our approach no parametrization of the PSF is required. We evaluate the proposed method quantitatively on synthetically degraded data as well as qualitatively on 3D ultrasound images of liver. The algorithm yields good restoration results and proves to be robust even in presence of high noise levels in the images.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 02/2007; 10(Pt 1):743-50.
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ABSTRACT: The creation of 2D ultrasound mosaics is becoming a common clinical practice with a high clinical value. The next step coming along with the increasing availability of 2D array transducers is the creation of 3D mosaics. In the literature of ultrasound registration, the alignment of multiple images has not yet been addressed. Therefore, we propose registration strategies, which are able to cope with problems arising by multiple image alignment. Among others, we use simultaneous registration which urges the usage of multivariate similarity measures. In this paper, we propose alternative multivariate extensions based on a maximum likelihood framework. Experimental results show the good performance of the proposed registration strategies and similarity measures.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 02/2007; 10(Pt 2):327-35.
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ABSTRACT: The fusion of 3D freehand ultrasound with CT and CTA has benefits for a variety of clinical applications, however a lot of manual work is usually required for correct registration. We developed new methods that allow one to simulate medical ultrasound from CT in real-time, reproducing the majority of ultrasonic imaging effects. The second novelty is a robust similarity measure that assesses the correlation of a combination of multiple signals extracted from CT with ultrasound, without knowing the influence of each signal. This serves as the foundation of a fully automatic registration, which aligns a freehand ultrasound sweep with the corresponding 3D modality using a rigid or an affine transformation model, without any manual interaction. We also present the used initialization, global and local parameter optimization schemes, and validation on abdominal CTA and ultrasound imaging of 10 patients.
Medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention : MICCAI ... International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention. 02/2007; 10(Pt 1):136-43.
