Quantitative and Clinical Analysis of SPECT Image Registration for Epilepsy Studies

• Published in: The Journal of nuclear medicine (1978) Vol. 40; no. 7; pp. 1098 - 1105
• Main Authors: Brinkmann, Benjamin H, O'Brien, Terence J, Aharon, Shmuel, O'Connor, Michael K, Mullan, Brian P, Hanson, Dennis P, Robb, Richard A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reston, VA Soc Nuclear Med 01.07.1999; Society of Nuclear Medicine
• Subjects: Algorithms; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; Cysteine - analogs & derivatives; Epilepsies, Partial - diagnostic imaging; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; Nervous system; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Neurology; Organotechnetium Compounds; Phantoms, Imaging; Radionuclide investigations; Radiopharmaceuticals; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon - methods; Radionuclide study; Human; Nervous system diseases; Correlation; Epilepsy; Complex partial epilepsy; Clinical form; Algorithm; Photon; Cerebral disorder; Blood flow; Automated processing; Central nervous system disease; Hemodynamics; Quantitative analysis; Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0161-5505; 1535-5667

This study reports quantitative measurements of the accuracy of two popular voxel-based registration algorithms--Woods' automated image registration algorithm and mutual information correlation--and compares these with conventional surface matching (SM) registration. The registration algorithms were compared (15 different matches each) for (a) three-dimensional brain phantom images, (b) an ictal SPECT image from a patient with partial epilepsy matched to itself after modification to simulate changes in the cerebral blood flow pattern and (c) ictal/interictal SPECT images from 15 patients with partial epilepsy. Blinded visual ranking and localization of the subtraction images derived from the patient images were also performed. Both voxel-based registration methods were more accurate than SM registration (P < 0.0005). Automated image registration algorithm was more accurate than mutual information correlation for the computer-simulated ictal/interictal images and the patient ictal/interictal studies (P < 0.05). The subtraction SPECTs from SM were poorer in visual ranking more often than the voxel-based methods (P < 0.05). Voxel intensity-based registration algorithms provide significant improvement in ictal/interictal SPECT registration accuracy and result in a clinically detectable improvement in the subtraction SPECT images.