Geometrical accuracy and fusion of multimodal vascular images: a phantom study.
The aim of this work was to compare the geometrical accuracy of x-ray angiography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), x-ray computed tomography (XCT), and ultrasound imaging (B-mode and IVUS, or intravascular ultrasound) for measuring the lumen diameters of blood vessels. An image fusion method was also developed to improve these measurements. The images were acquired from a phantom that mimic vessels of known diameters. After acquisition, the multimodal images were coregistered by manual alignment of fiducial markers, and then by maximization of mutual information. The fusion method was performed by means of a fuzzy logic modeling approach followed by a combination process based on a possibilistic theory. The results showed (i) the better geometrical accuracy of XCT and IVUS compared to the other modalities, and (ii) the better accuracy and smaller variability of fused images compared to single modalities, with respect to most diameters investigated. For XCT, the error varied from 0.4% to 5.4%, depending on the vessel diameter that ranged from 0.93 to 6.24 mm. For IVUS, the error ranged from -0.3% to 1.7% but the smallest vessel (0.93 mm) could not be investigated because of the probe size. Compared to others fusion schemes, the XCT-MRI fused images provided the best results for both accuracy (from -1.6% to 0.2% for the three largest vessels) and robustness (mean relative error of 1.9%). To conclude, this work underlined both the usefulness of the multimodality vascular phantom as a validation tool and the utility of image fusion in the vascular context.
Boussion
Nicolas
N
Laboratory of Biorheology and Medical Ultrasonics, Research Center, University of Montreal Hospital, Québec H2L 2W5, Canada.
Soulez
Gilles
G
De Guise
Jacques A
JA
Daronat
Michel
M
Qin
Zhao
Z
Cloutier
Guy
G
D000792:Angiography; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014463:Ultrasonography