A deformable image registration method to handle distended rectums in prostate cancer radiotherapy.
In image-guided adaptive radiotherapy, it is important to have the capability to automatically and accurately delineate the rectal wall, which is a major dose-limiting organ in prostate cancer radiotherapy. As image registration is a process to find the spatial correspondence between two images, a major challenge in intensity-based deformable image registration is to deal with the situation where no correspondence exists for some objects between the two images to be registered. One example is the variation of rectal contents due to the presence and absence of bowel gas. The intensity-based deformable image registration methods alone cannot create the correct spatial transformation if there is no correspondence between the source and target images. In this study we implemented an automatic image intensity modification procedure to create artificial gas pockets in the planning computed tomography (CT) images. A diffusion-based deformable image registration algorithm was developed to use an adaptive smoothing algorithm to better handle large organ deformations. The process was tested in 15 prostate cancer cases and 30 daily CT images containing the largest distended rectums. The manually delineated rectums agreed well with the autodelineated rectums when using the image-intensity modification procedure.
Gao
Song
S
Department of Radiation Physics, Unit 94, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Zhang
Lifei
L
Wang
He
H
de Crevoisier
Renaud
R
Kuban
Deborah D
DD
Mohan
Radhe
R
Dong
Lei
L
D000465:Algorithms; D004548:Elasticity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D011881:Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D012007:Rectum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*