This paper reviews recent work in radiological image registration
and provides a classification of image
registration by type of transformation and by methods employed to compute
the transformation. The
former includes transformation of 2D images to 2D images of the same individual,
transformation of 3D
images to 3D images of the same individual, transformation of images to
an atlas or model, transformation
of images acquired from a number of individuals, transformations for image
guided interventions including
2D to 3D registration and finally tissue deformation in image guided interventions.
Recent work on
computing transformations for registration using corresponding landmark
based registration, surface based
registration and voxel similarity measures, including entropy based measures,
are reviewed and compared.
Recently fully automated algorithms based on voxel similarity measures
and, in particular, mutual
information have been shown to be accurate and robust at registering images
of the head when the rigid
body assumption is valid. Two approaches to modelling soft tissue deformation
for applications in image
guided interventions are described. Validation of complex processing tasks
such as image registration is vital
if these algorithms are to be used in clinical practice. Three alternative
validation strategies are presented.
These methods are finding application outside the original domain of radiological
imaging.