Multiscaled combination of MR and SPECT images in neuroimaging: A simplex method based variable-weight fusion

Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images alone are difficult to understand in diagnosis, since anatomical structures are absent from the data. Studies on combination attempt to locate functional changes of the SPECT image by the magnetic resonance (MR) image. Due to the low similarity between original images, fused results are always darkened, obscured or loss some crucial anatomical structures. This paper has solved these problems by the variable-weight matrix which is estimated by minimizing the cost function using the simplex method. Under the generalized intensity-hue-saturation (GIHS) framework, the multiscaled analysis is presented for a better detail preservation. Besides, interactive approaches are discussed for the gradual variation between original images and the control of detail performance. The similarity assessment evaluates several different methods on a normal brain atlas. Two clips show the interactive property of the proposed method, while two medical cases demonstrate its clinical values. We conclude that the proposed method is superior to traditional methods, when considering the definition and the information capacity of fused results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.