A Non-Linear Diffeomorphic Framework for Prostate Multimodal Registration

This paper presents a novel method for non-rigid registration of prostate multimodal images based on a nonlinear framework. The parametric estimation of the non-linear diffeomorphism between the 2D fixed and moving images has its basis in solving a set of non-linear equations of thin-plate splines. The regularized bending energy of the thin-plate splines along with the localization error of established correspondences is jointly minimized with the fixed and transformed image difference, where, the transformed image is represented by the set of non-linear equations defined over the moving image. The traditional thin-plate splines with established correspondences may provide good registration of the anatomical targets inside the prostate but may fail to provide improved contour registration. On the contrary, the proposed framework maintains the accuracy of registration in terms of overlap due to the non-linear thin-plate spline functions while also producing smooth deformations of the anatomical structures inside the prostate as a result of established corrspondences. The registration accuracies of the proposed method are evaluated in 20 pairs of prostate mid-gland ultrasound and magnetic resonance images in terms of Dice similarity coefficient with an average of 0.982 ± 0.004, average 95% Hausdorff distance of 1.54 ± 0.46 mm and mean target registration and target localization errors of 1.90±1.27 mm and 0.15 ± 0.12 mm respectively.