title: MARS: a mouse atlas registration system based on a planar x-ray projector and an optical camera.
abstract: This paper introduces a mouse atlas registration system (MARS), composed of a stationary top-view x-ray projector and a side-view optical camera, coupled to a mouse atlas registration algorithm. This system uses the x-ray and optical images to guide a fully automatic co-registration of a mouse atlas with each subject, in order to provide anatomical reference for small animal molecular imaging systems such as positron emission tomography (PET). To facilitate the registration, a statistical atlas that accounts for inter-subject anatomical variations was constructed based on 83 organ-labeled mouse micro-computed tomography (CT) images. The statistical shape model and conditional Gaussian model techniques were used to register the atlas with the x-ray image and optical photo. The accuracy of the atlas registration was evaluated by comparing the registered atlas with the organ-labeled micro-CT images of the test subjects. The results showed excellent registration accuracy of the whole-body region, and good accuracy for the brain, liver, heart, lungs and kidneys. In its implementation, the MARS was integrated with a preclinical PET scanner to deliver combined PET/MARS imaging, and to facilitate atlas-assisted analysis of the preclinical PET images.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA. wang.hongkai@gmail.com
authors.forename: Hongkai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Stout
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Taschereau
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Nam T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Vu
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Prout
authors.forename: Arion F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Chatziioannou
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000716:Anatomy, Artistic; D000818:Animals; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D049628:Body Size; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D016011:Normal Distribution; D055096:Optical Devices; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*