APPLICATION OF A SURFACE MATCHING IMAGE REGISTRATION TECHNIQUE TO THECORRELATION OF CARDIAC STUDIES IN POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY (PET) BY TRANSMISSION IMAGES

The aim of this work is to assess the accuracy of a surface matching r egistration (SMR) technique for the correlation of cardiac studies in positron emission tomography (PET). Registration parameters were estim ated by matching corresponding body surfaces, extracted from transmiss ion studies, aligned to the PET emission images to be correlated. The accuracy of the SMR technique in this specific application was assesse d by computer simulations, phantom experiments and on clinical PET dat a. Registration accuracy was evaluated in relation to the body surface s (external, internal and the combination of the two) used by the SMR method. Better results were found when matching shaped and irregular s urfaces such as internal lung contours. The robustness of the method w as verified for different counting statistics recorded in transmission images. A clinical validation of the SMR method was performed on fluo rine-18-deoxyglucose PET cardiac studies.