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