Atlas encoding by randomized forests for efficient label propagation

Abstract We propose a method for multi-atlas label propagation based on encoding the individual atlases by randomized classification forests. Most current approaches perform a non-linear registration between all atlases and the target image, followed by a sophisticated fusion scheme. While these approaches can achieve high accuracy, in general they do so at high computational cost. This negatively affects the scalability to large databases and experimentation. To tackle this issue, we propose to use a small and deep classification forest to encode each atlas individually in reference to an aligned probabilistic atlas, resulting in an Atlas Forest (AF). At test time, each AF yields a probabilistic label estimate, and fusion is done by averaging. Our scheme performs only one registration per target image, achieves good results with a simple fusion scheme, and allows for efficient experimentation. In contrast to standard forest schemes, incorporation of new scans is possible without retraining, and target-specific selection of atlases remains possible. The evaluation on three different databases shows accuracy at the level of the state of the art, at a significantly lower runtime

Classification Forests for Semantic Segmentation of Brain Lesions in Multi-channel MRI

International audienceClassification forests, as discussed in Chapter 2, have a series of advantageous properties which make them a very good choice for applications in medical image analysis. Classification forests are inherent multi-label classifiers (which allows for the simultaneous segmentation of different tissues), have good generalization properties (which is important as training data is often scarce in medical applications), and are able to deal with very high-dimensional feature spaces (which allows the use of non-local and context-aware features to describe the input data). In this chapter we demonstrate how classification forests can be used as a basic building block to develop state of the art systems for medical image analysis in two challenging applications. These applications perform the segmentation of two different types of brain lesions based on 3D multi-channel magnetic resonance images (MRI) as input. More specifically, we discuss (1) the segmentation of the individual tissues of high-grade brain tumor lesions, and (2) the segmentation of multiple-sclerosis lesions

Image quality transfer and applications in diffusion MRI

This paper introduces a new computational imaging technique called image quality transfer (IQT). IQT uses machine learning to transfer the rich information available from one-off experimental medical imaging devices to the abundant but lower-quality data from routine acquisitions. The procedure uses matched pairs to learn mappings from low-quality to corresponding high-quality images. Once learned, these mappings then augment unseen low quality images, for example by enhancing image resolution or information content. Here, we demonstrate IQT using a simple patch-regression implementation and the uniquely rich diffusion MRI data set from the human connectome project (HCP). Results highlight potential benefits of IQT in both brain connectivity mapping and microstructure imaging. In brain connectivity mapping, IQT reveals, from standard data sets, thin connection pathways that tractography normally requires specialised data to reconstruct. In microstructure imaging, IQT shows potential in estimating, from standard “single-shell” data (one non-zero b-value), maps of microstructural parameters that normally require specialised multi-shell data. Further experiments show strong generalisability, highlighting IQT's benefits even when the training set does not directly represent the application domain. The concept extends naturally to many other imaging modalities and reconstruction problems

Deformable Registration of 3D Vessel Structures to a Single Projection Image

Alignment of angiographic preoperative 3D scans to intraoperative 2D projections is an important issue for 3D depth perception and navigation during interventions. Currently, in a setting where only one 2D projection is available, methods employing a rigid transformation model present the state of the art for this problem. In this work, we introduce a method capable of deformably registering 3D vessel structures to a respective single projection of the scene. Our approach addresses the inherent ill-posedness of the problem by incorporating a priori knowledge about the vessel structures into the formulation. We minimize the distance between the 2D points and corresponding projected 3D points together with regularization terms encoding the properties of length preservation of vessel structures and smoothness of deformation. We demonstrate the performance and accuracy of the proposed method by quantitative tests on synthetic examples as well as real angiographic scenes

Generalization of deformable registration in riemannian sobolev spaces

Abstract In this work we discuss the generalized treatment of the deformable registration problem in Sobolev spaces. We extend previous approaches in two points: 1) by employing a general energy model which includes a regularization term, and 2) by changing the notion of distance in the Sobolev space by problem-dependent Riemannian metrics. The actual choice of the metric is such that it has a preconditioning effect on the problem, it is applicable to arbitrary similarity measures, and features a simple implementation. The experiments demonstrate an improvement in convergence and runtime by several orders of magnitude in comparison to semi-implicit gradient flows in L 2. This translates to increased accuracy in practical scenarios. Furthermore, the proposed generalization establishes a theoretical link between gradient flow in Sobolev spaces and elastic registration methods

A General Preconditioning Scheme for Difference Measures in Deformable Registration

We present a preconditioning scheme for improving the efficiency of optimization of arbitrary difference measures in deformable registration problems. This is of particular interest for high-dimensional registration problems with statistical difference measures such as MI, and the demons method, since in these cases the range of applicable optimization methods is limited. The proposed scheme is simple and computationally efficient: It performs an approximate normalization of the point-wise vectors of the difference gradient to unit length. The major contribution of this work is a theoretical analysis which demonstrates the improvement of the condition by our approach, which is furthermore shown to be an approximation to the optimal case for the analyzed model. Our scheme improves the convergence speed while adding only negligible computational cost, thus resulting in shorter effective runtimes. The theoretical findings are confirmed by experiments on 3D brain data. 1