Automatic PET-CT Image Registration Method Based on Mutual Information and Genetic Algorithms

Hybrid PET/CT scanners can simultaneously visualize coronary artery disease as revealed by computed tomography (CT) and myocardial perfusion as measured by positron emission tomography (PET). Manual registration is usually required in clinical practice to compensate spatial mismatch between datasets. In this paper, we present a registration algorithm that is able to automatically align PET/CT cardiac images. The algorithm bases on mutual information (MI) as registration metric and on genetic algorithm as optimization method. A multiresolution approach was used to optimize the processing time. The algorithm was tested on computerized models of volumetric PET/CT cardiac data and on real PET/CT datasets. The proposed automatic registration algorithm smoothes the pattern of the MI and allows it to reach the global maximum of the similarity function. The implemented method also allows the definition of the correct spatial transformation that matches both synthetic and real PET and CT volumetric datasets.