The goal of this research is to register real-time interventional magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) slice images with a previously obtained high-resolution MRI image volume, which in turn can be registered with functional images such as those from SPECT. The immediate application is in iMRI-guided treatment of prostate cancer, where additional images are desired to improve tumor targeting. In this article, simulation experiments are performed to demonstrate the feasibility of slice-to-volume registration for this application. We acquired 3D volume images from a 1.5-T MRI system and simulated low-field iMRI image slices by creating thick slices and adding noise. We created a slice-to-volume mutual information registration algorithm with special features to improve robustness. Features included a multiresolution approach, two similarity measures, and automatic restarting to avoid local minima. To assess the quality of registration, we calculated 3D displacements on a voxel-by-voxel basis over a volume of interest between slice-to-volume registration and volume-to-volume registration, which was previously shown to be quite accurate. More than 800 registration experiments were performed on MR images of three volunteers. The slice-to-volume registration algorithm was very robust and accurate for transverse slice images covering the prostate, with a registration error of only 0.4 +/- 0.2 mm. Error was greater at other slice orientations and positions. The automatic slice-to-volume mutual information registration algorithm is robust and probably sufficiently accurate to aid in iMRI-guided treatment of prostate cancer.
Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.