Automatic registration and alignment on a template of cardiac stress and rest SPECT images

Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is used to assess the location or the extent of myocardial infarction or ischemia. A method is proposed to decrease the effect of operator variability and morphologically blind sampling in the quantification of scintigraphic myocardial perfusion studies. To effect this, the patient's myocardial images (target cases) are registered automatically over a template image, utilizing non-rigid transformations. The registration method is an adaptation of the Iterative Closest Point algorithm. Experiments have been conducted on a database including 40 pairs of images selected to obtain a group of image abnormalities and variability. Upon the successful clinical validation of this work, a reliable, operator independent method for the analysis and interpretation of myocardial perfusion scintigraphies will be available.