Denis P. Shamonin

Fast Parallel Image Registration on CPU and GPU for Diagnostic Classification of Alzheimer's Disease

Nonrigid image registration is an important, but time-consuming task in medical image analysis. In typical neuroimaging studies, multiple image registrations are performed, i.e., for atlas-based segmentation or template construction. Faster image registration routines would therefore be beneficial. In this paper we explore acceleration of the image registration package elastix by a combination of several techniques: (i) parallelization on the CPU, to speed up the cost function derivative calculation; (ii) parallelization on the GPU building on and extending the OpenCL framework from ITKv4, to speed up the Gaussian pyramid computation and the image resampling step; (iii) exploitation of certain properties of the B-spline transformation model; (iv) further software optimizations. The accelerated registration tool is employed in a study on diagnostic classification of Alzheimers disease and cognitively normal controls based on T1-weighted MRI. We selected 299 participants from the publicly available Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database. Classification is performed with a support vector machine based on gray matter volumes as a marker for atrophy. We evaluated two types of strategies (voxel-wise and region-wise) that heavily rely on nonrigid image registration. Parallelization and optimization resulted in an acceleration factor of 4–5x on an 8-core machine. Using OpenCL a speedup factor of 2 was realized for computation of the Gaussian pyramids, and 15–60 for the resampling step, for larger images. The voxel-wise and the region-wise classification methods had an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve of 88 and 90%, respectively, both for standard and accelerated registration. We conclude that the image registration package elastix was substantially accelerated, with nearly identical results to the non-optimized version. The new functionality will become available in the next release of elastix as open source under the BSD license.

A strain energy filter for 3D vessel enhancement with application to pulmonary CT images

The traditional Hessian-related vessel filters often suffer from detecting complex structures like bifurcations due to an over-simplified cylindrical model. To solve this problem, we present a shape-tuned strain energy density function to measure vessel likelihood in 3D medical images. This method is initially inspired by established stress-strain principles in mechanics. By considering the Hessian matrix as a stress tensor, the three invariants from orthogonal tensor decomposition are used independently or combined to formulate distinctive functions for vascular shape discrimination, brightness contrast and structure strength measuring. Moreover, a mathematical description of Hessian eigenvalues for general vessel shapes is obtained, based on an intensity continuity assumption, and a relative Hessian strength term is presented to ensure the dominance of second-order derivatives as well as suppress undesired step-edges. Finally, we adopt the multi-scale scheme to find an optimal solution through scale space. The proposed method is validated in experiments with a digital phantom and non-contrast-enhanced pulmonary CT data. It is shown that our model performed more effectively in enhancing vessel bifurcations and preserving details, compared to three existing filters.

Multiscale Bi-Gaussian Filter for Adjacent Curvilinear Structures Detection With Application to Vasculature Images

The intensity or gray-level derivatives have been widely used in image segmentation and enhancement. Conventional derivative filters often suffer from an undesired merging of adjacent objects because of their intrinsic usage of an inappropriately broad Gaussian kernel; as a result, neighboring structures cannot be properly resolved. To avoid this problem, we propose to replace the low-level Gaussian kernel with a bi-Gaussian function, which allows independent selection of scales in the foreground and background. By selecting a narrow neighborhood for the background with regard to the foreground, the proposed method will reduce interference from adjacent objects simultaneously preserving the ability of intraregion smoothing. Our idea is inspired by a comparative analysis of existing line filters, in which several traditional methods, including the vesselness, gradient flux, and medialness models, are integrated into a uniform framework. The comparison subsequently aids in understanding the principles of different filtering kernels, which is also a contribution of this paper. Based on some axiomatic scale-space assumptions, the full representation of our bi-Gaussian kernel is deduced. The popular γ-normalization scheme for multiscale integration is extended to the bi-Gaussian operators. Finally, combined with a parameter-free shape estimation scheme, a derivative filter is developed for the typical applications of curvilinear structure detection and vasculature image enhancement. It is verified in experiments using synthetic and real data that the proposed method outperforms several conventional filters in separating closely located objects and being robust to noise.

Towards local progression estimation of pulmonary emphysema using CT

PURPOSE Whole lung densitometry on chest CT images is an accepted method for measuring tissue destruction in patients with pulmonary emphysema in clinical trials. Progression measurement is required for evaluation of change in health condition and the effect of drug treatment. Information about the location of emphysema progression within the lung may be important for the correct interpretation of drug efficacy, or for determining a treatment plan. The purpose of this study is therefore to develop and validate methods that enable the local measurement of lung density changes, which requires proper modeling of the effect of respiration on density. METHODS Four methods, all based on registration of baseline and follow-up chest CT scans, are compared. The first naïve method subtracts registered images. The second employs the so-called dry sponge model, where volume correction is performed using the determinant of the Jacobian of the transformation. The third and the fourth introduce a novel adaptation of the dry sponge model that circumvents its constant-mass assumption, which is shown to be invalid. The latter two methods require a third CT scan at a different inspiration level to estimate the patient-specific density-volume slope, where one method employs a global and the other a local slope. The methods were validated on CT scans of a phantom mimicking the lung, where mass and volume could be controlled. In addition, validation was performed on data of 21 patients with pulmonary emphysema. RESULTS The image registration method was optimized leaving a registration error below half the slice increment (median 1.0 mm). The phantom study showed that the locally adapted slope model most accurately measured local progression. The systematic error in estimating progression, as measured on the phantom data, was below 2 gr/l for a 70 ml (6%) volume difference, and 5 gr/l for a 210 ml (19%) difference, if volume correction was applied. On the patient data an underlying linearity assumption relating lung volume change with density change was shown to hold (fitR(2) = 0.94), and globalized versions of the local models are consistent with global results (R(2) of 0.865 and 0.882 for the two adapted slope models, respectively). CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, image matching and subsequent analysis of differences according to the proposed lung models (i) has good local registration accuracy on patient data, (ii) effectively eliminates a dependency on inspiration level at acquisition time, (iii) accurately predicts progression in phantom data, and (iv) is reasonably consistent with global results in patient data. It is therefore a potential future tool for assessing local emphysema progression in drug evaluation trials and in clinical practice.

Integration of Blood Flow Visualization on the Grid: The FlowFish/GVK Approach

We have developed the FlowFish package for blood flow visualization of vascular disorder simulations, such as aneurysms and stenosis. We use a Lattice-Boltzmann solver for flow process simulation to test the efficiency of the visualization classes, and experiment with the combination of grid applications and corresponding visualization clients on the European Crossgrid testbed, to assess grid accessability and visualization data transfer performance.

Towards local estimation of emphysema progression using image registration

Progression measurement of emphysema is required to evaluate the health condition of a patient and the effect of drugs. To locally estimate progression we use image registration, which allows for volume correction using the determinant of the Jacobian of the transformation. We introduce an adaptation of the so-called sponge model that circumvents its constant-mass assumption. Preliminary results from CT scans of a lung phantom and from CT data sets of three patients suggest that image registration may be a suitable method to locally estimate emphysema progression.

Automatic lung lobe segmentation of COPD patients using iterative B-spline fitting

We present an automatic lung lobe segmentation algorithm for COPD patients. The method enhances fissures, removes unlikely fissure candidates, after which a B-spline is fitted iteratively through the remaining candidate objects. The iterative fitting approach circumvents the need to classify each object as being part of the fissure or being noise, and allows the fissure to be detected in multiple disconnected parts. This property is beneficial for good performance in patient data, containing incomplete and disease-affected fissures. The proposed algorithm is tested on 22 COPD patients, resulting in accurate lobe-based densitometry, and a median overlap of the fissure (defined 3 voxels wide) with an expert ground truth of 0.65, 0.54 and 0.44 for the three main fissures. This compares to complete lobe overlaps of 0.99, 0.98, 0.98, 0.97 and 0.87 for the five main lobes, showing promise for lobe segmentation on data of patients with moderate to severe COPD.

A derivative of stick filter for pulmonary fissure detection in CT images

Pulmonary fissures are important landmarks for automated recognition of lung anatomy and need to be detected as a pre-processing step. We propose a derivative of stick (DoS) filter for pulmonary fissures detection in thoracic CT scans by considering their thin curvilinear shape across multiple transverse planes. Based on a stick decomposition of a local rectangular neighborhood, a nonlinear derivative operator perpendicular to each stick is defined. Then, combining with a standard deviation of the intensity along the stick, the composed likelihood function will take a strong response to fissure-like bright lines, and tends to suppress undesired structures including large vessels, step edges and blobs. Applying the 2D filter sequentially to the sagittal, coronal and axial slices, an approximate 3D co-planar constraint is implicitly exerted through the cascaded pipeline, which helps to further eliminate non-fissure tissues. To generate a clear fissure segmentation, we adopt a connected component based post-processing scheme, combined with a branch-point finding algorithm to disconnect the residual adjacent clutters from the fissures. The performance of our filter has been verified in experiments with a 23 patients dataset, where pathologies to different extents are included. The DoS filter compared favorably with prior algorithms.

Creating DEMO Presentations on the Base of Visualization Model

The paper is devoted to the complex process that begins by obtaining numerical data while solving a scientific problem and completes by the creation of the demo for illustrating the final solution in the graphical form. The represented visualized results were obtained after the simulation of the particle movement in the system of three bodies on the LaGrange surface and the simulation of mature convective clouds development. All calculations were carried out using supercomputers of CONVEX C-series, PARSYTEC systems and Cray J-90. Then the numerical data was converted using Geomview - special viewing program oriented for 3D visualization under IRIX 6.2 (SGI Octane workstation). It became possible thanks to the additional module written in C/C++ and aimed to converting data of special formats into the series of graphical images. As a result, 3D animation films were elaborated.

A problem solving environment for image-based computational hemodynamics

We introduce a complete problem solving environment designed for pulsatile flows in 3D complex geometries, especially arteries. Three-dimensional images from arteries, obtained from e.g. Magnetic Resonance Imaging, are segmented to obtain a geometrical description of the arteries of interest. This segmented artery is prepared for blood flow simulations in a 3D editing tool, allowing to define in- and outlets, to filter and crop part of the artery, to add certain structures ( e.g. a by-pass, or stents ), and to generate computational meshes as input to the blood flow simulators. Using dedicated fluid flow solvers the time dependent blood flow in the artery during one systole is computed. The resulting flow, pressure and shear stress fields are then analyzed using a number of visualization techniques. The whole environment can be operated from a desktop virtual reality system, and is embedded in a Grid computing environment.