title: Localisation of the brain in fetal MRI using bundled SIFT features.
abstract: Fetal MRI is a rapidly emerging diagnostic imaging tool. Its main focus is currently on brain imaging, but there is a huge potential for whole body studies. We propose a method for accurate and robust localisation of the fetal brain in MRI when the image data is acquired as a stack of 2D slices misaligned due to fetal motion. We first detect possible brain locations in 2D images with a Bag-of-Words model using SIFT features aggregated within Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (called bundled SIFT), followed by a robust fitting of an axis-aligned 3D box to the selected regions. We rely on prior knowledge of the fetal brain development to define size and shape constraints. In a cross-validation experiment, we obtained a median error distance of 5.7mm from the ground truth and no missed detection on a database of 59 fetuses. This 2D approach thus allows a robust detection even in the presence of substantial fetal motion.
authors: Biomedical Image Analysis Group, Imperial College London.
authors: Kevin
authors: K
authors: Keraudren
authors: Centre for the Developing Brain & Department Biomedical Engineering Division of Imaging Sciences, King's College London.
authors: Vanessa
authors: V
authors: Kyriakopoulou
authors: Centre for the Developing Brain & Department Biomedical Engineering Division of Imaging Sciences, King's College London.
authors: Mary
authors: M
authors: Rutherford
authors: Centre for the Developing Brain & Department Biomedical Engineering Division of Imaging Sciences, King's College London.
authors: Joseph V
authors: JV
authors: Hajnal
authors: Biomedical Image Analysis Group, Imperial College London.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Rueckert
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000196:embryology*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity