Medical image fusion methods: Review and application in cardiac diagnosis

Abstract

Abstract Complex cardiac diseases can be identified using the fusion technique, which is useful for improving quality of cardiac imaging and removing redundancies. Fusion is the process of registering and then combining multiple views of cardiac images taken from a common modality or multiple different modalities. Different modalities provide different information, thus fusing multiple images helps to obtain enhanced information. Cardiac computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be fused, or positron emission tomography (PET) and CT may be fused, or echocardiography and MRI may be fused. In some cases, different views of the cardiac image can be fused; for example, the parasternal long-axis view and apical view of echocardiographic images may be fused to obtain better information. Three-dimensional image fusion is an advanced technique for diagnosis. In this chapter, we begin with a review of cardiac fusion and then explore a fusion technique.