title: Motion estimation for cardiac emission tomography by optical flow methods.
abstract: This paper describes a new method for estimating the 3D, non-rigid object motion in a time sequence of images. The method is a generalization of a standard optical flow algorithm that is incorporated into a successive quadratic approximation framework. The method was evaluated for gated cardiac emission tomography using images obtained from a mathematical, 4D phantom and a physical, dynamic phantom. The results showed that the proposed method offers improved motion estimation accuracy relative to the standard optical flow method. Convergence of the proposed algorithm was evidenced with a monotonically decreasing objective function value with iteration. Practical application of the motion estimation method in cardiac emission tomography includes quantitative myocardial motion estimation and 4D, motion-compensated image reconstruction.
authors.affiliation: University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32605, USA. gilland@ufl.edu
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Gilland
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Mair
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D041622:Tomography, Optical / Q000379:methods