Evaluation of a Coherent Point Drift Algorithm for Breast Image Registration via Surface Markers

Abstract

Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a reliable imaging
tool for localization and evaluation of lesions prior to breast conserving
surgery (BCS). MR images typically will be used to determine
the size and location of the tumours before making the incision
in order to minimize the amount of tissue excised.
The arm position and configuration of the breast during and
prior to surgery are different and one question is whether it would
be possible to match the two configurations. This matching process
can potentially be used in development of tools to guide surgeons
in the incision process.
Recently, a Thin-Plate-Spline (TPS) algorithm has been proposed
to assess the feasibility of breast tissue matching using fiducial
surface markers in two different arm positions. The registration
algorithm uses the surface markers only and does not employ the
image intensities.
In this manuscript, we apply and evaluate a coherent point drift
(CPD) algorithm for registration of three-dimensional breast MR images
of six patient volunteers. In particular, we evaluate the results
of the previous TPS registration technique to the proposed rigid
CPD, affine CPD, and deformable CPD registration algorithms on
the same patient datasets.
The preliminary results suggest that the CPD deformable registration
algorithm is superior in correcting the motion of the breast
compared to CPD rigid, affine and TPS registration algorithms.