Program Information
Development of Physiological-Based Virtual Thorax Phantoms for Evaluation of Deformable Image Registration
L Hu1*, T Cui2 , W Miller3 , F Yin4 , J Cai5 , (1) Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, (2) Duke University, Durham, NC, (3) University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, (4) Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, (5) Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Presentations
WE-AB-BRA-11 (Wednesday, July 15, 2015) 7:30 AM - 9:30 AM Room: Ballroom A
Purpose: To develop a methodology of constructing physiological-based virtual thorax phantom based on hyperpolarized (HP) gas tagging MRI for evaluating deformable image registration (DIR).
Methods: Three healthy subjects were imaged at both the end-of-inhalation (EOI) and the end-of-exhalation (EOE) phases using a high-resolution (2.5mm isovoxel) 3D proton MRI, as well as a hybrid MRI which combines HP gas tagging MRI and a low-resolution (4.5mm isovoxel) proton MRI. A sparse tagging displacement vector field (tDVF) was derived from the HP gas tagging MRI by tracking the displacement of tagging grids between EOI and EOE. Using the tDVF and the high-resolution MR images, we determined the motion model of the entire thorax in the following two steps: 1) the DVF inside of lungs was estimated based on the sparse tDVF using a novel multi-step natural neighbor interpolation method; 2) the DVF outside of lungs was estimated from the DIR between the EOI and EOE images (Velocity AI). The derived motion model was then applied to the high-resolution EOI image to create a deformed EOE image, forming the virtual phantom where the motion model provides the ground truth of deformation. Five DIR methods were evaluated using the developed virtual phantom. Errors in DVF magnitude (Em) and angle (Ea) were determined and compared for each DIR method.
Results: Among the five DIR methods, free form deformation produced DVF results that are most closely resembling the ground truth (Em=1.04mm, Ea=6.63°). The two DIR methods based on B-spline produced comparable results (Em=2.04mm, Ea=13.66°; and Em =2.62mm, Ea=17.67°), and the two optical-flow methods produced least accurate results (Em=7.8mm; Ea=53.04°; Em=4.45mm, Ea=31.02°).
Conclusion: A methodology for constructing physiological-based virtual thorax phantom based on HP gas tagging MRI has been developed. Initial evaluation demonstrated its potential as an effective tool for robust evaluation of DIR in the lung.
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