Statistical regularization of deformation fields for atlas-based segmentation of bone scintigraphy images.

The construction and application of statistical models of deformations based on non-rigid image registration methods have gained recent popularity. This paper presents the application of such a model to restricting a general-purpose registration algorithm to anatomically plausible solutions. Specifically, the Morphon registration method is used for atlas-based segmentation of bone scintigraphy images. From a training set of 734 images, a model of characteristic deformation fields is built and used for regularizing the registration of 113 test images. Results show that around 300 training images and 30 principal modes are sufficient for building a useful model. The segmentation succeeded in 106 of 113 test images.