35,721 research outputs found
Distributed-memory large deformation diffeomorphic 3D image registration
We present a parallel distributed-memory algorithm for large deformation
diffeomorphic registration of volumetric images that produces large isochoric
deformations (locally volume preserving). Image registration is a key
technology in medical image analysis. Our algorithm uses a partial differential
equation constrained optimal control formulation. Finding the optimal
deformation map requires the solution of a highly nonlinear problem that
involves pseudo-differential operators, biharmonic operators, and pure
advection operators both forward and back- ward in time. A key issue is the
time to solution, which poses the demand for efficient optimization methods as
well as an effective utilization of high performance computing resources. To
address this problem we use a preconditioned, inexact, Gauss-Newton- Krylov
solver. Our algorithm integrates several components: a spectral discretization
in space, a semi-Lagrangian formulation in time, analytic adjoints, different
regularization functionals (including volume-preserving ones), a spectral
preconditioner, a highly optimized distributed Fast Fourier Transform, and a
cubic interpolation scheme for the semi-Lagrangian time-stepping. We
demonstrate the scalability of our algorithm on images with resolution of up to
on the "Maverick" and "Stampede" systems at the Texas Advanced
Computing Center (TACC). The critical problem in the medical imaging
application domain is strong scaling, that is, solving registration problems of
a moderate size of ---a typical resolution for medical images. We are
able to solve the registration problem for images of this size in less than
five seconds on 64 x86 nodes of TACC's "Maverick" system.Comment: accepted for publication at SC16 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA;
November 201
Optical techniques for 3D surface reconstruction in computer-assisted laparoscopic surgery
One of the main challenges for computer-assisted surgery (CAS) is to determine the intra-opera- tive morphology and motion of soft-tissues. This information is prerequisite to the registration of multi-modal patient-specific data for enhancing the surgeon’s navigation capabilites by observ- ing beyond exposed tissue surfaces and for providing intelligent control of robotic-assisted in- struments. In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), optical techniques are an increasingly attractive approach for in vivo 3D reconstruction of the soft-tissue surface geometry. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art methods for optical intra-operative 3D reconstruction in laparoscopic surgery and discusses the technical challenges and future perspectives towards clinical translation. With the recent paradigm shift of surgical practice towards MIS and new developments in 3D opti- cal imaging, this is a timely discussion about technologies that could facilitate complex CAS procedures in dynamic and deformable anatomical regions
Medical imaging analysis with artificial neural networks
Given that neural networks have been widely reported in the research community of medical imaging, we provide a focused literature survey on recent neural network developments in computer-aided diagnosis, medical image segmentation and edge detection towards visual content analysis, and medical image registration for its pre-processing and post-processing, with the aims of increasing awareness of how neural networks can be applied to these areas and to provide a foundation for further research and practical development. Representative techniques and algorithms are explained in detail to provide inspiring examples illustrating: (i) how a known neural network with fixed structure and training procedure could be applied to resolve a medical imaging problem; (ii) how medical images could be analysed, processed, and characterised by neural networks; and (iii) how neural networks could be expanded further to resolve problems relevant to medical imaging. In the concluding section, a highlight of comparisons among many neural network applications is included to provide a global view on computational intelligence with neural networks in medical imaging
Robust Cardiac Motion Estimation using Ultrafast Ultrasound Data: A Low-Rank-Topology-Preserving Approach
Cardiac motion estimation is an important diagnostic tool to detect heart
diseases and it has been explored with modalities such as MRI and conventional
ultrasound (US) sequences. US cardiac motion estimation still presents
challenges because of the complex motion patterns and the presence of noise. In
this work, we propose a novel approach to estimate the cardiac motion using
ultrafast ultrasound data. -- Our solution is based on a variational
formulation characterized by the L2-regularized class. The displacement is
represented by a lattice of b-splines and we ensure robustness by applying a
maximum likelihood type estimator. While this is an important part of our
solution, the main highlight of this paper is to combine a low-rank data
representation with topology preservation. Low-rank data representation
(achieved by finding the k-dominant singular values of a Casorati Matrix
arranged from the data sequence) speeds up the global solution and achieves
noise reduction. On the other hand, topology preservation (achieved by
monitoring the Jacobian determinant) allows to radically rule out distortions
while carefully controlling the size of allowed expansions and contractions.
Our variational approach is carried out on a realistic dataset as well as on a
simulated one. We demonstrate how our proposed variational solution deals with
complex deformations through careful numerical experiments. While maintaining
the accuracy of the solution, the low-rank preprocessing is shown to speed up
the convergence of the variational problem. Beyond cardiac motion estimation,
our approach is promising for the analysis of other organs that experience
motion.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 201
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