A novel method for 3D prostate MR-histology registration using anatomical landmarks

No current imaging technique is capable of detecting with precision tumours within the prostate. To evaluate each technique, the histology data must be registered to the imaged data. As the histology slices cannot be assumed to be cut along the same plane as the imaged data was acquired, the registration must be considered as a 3D problem. We propose a novel 3D registration method which uses the ejaculatory ducts, an anatomical landmark present in every prostate and visible in both MR and histology. The method has been tested on 3 prostate specimens. The aligned histology slices are first shear corrected, with an average angular error after correction of 2.83±1.46°. The MR-histology registration accuracy, evaluated operator-independently, is on average 1.50 ± 0.74 mm.