Utilization of 3-D elastic transformation in the registration of chest X-ray CT and whole body PET

X-ray CT is widely used for detection and localization of lesions in the thorax. Whole Body PET with 18-FDG is becoming accepted for staging of cancer because of its ability to detect malignancy. Combining information from these two modalities has a significant value to improve lung cancer staging and treatment planning. Due to the non-rigid nature of the thorax and the differences in the acquisition conventions, the subject is stretched non-uniformly and the images of these two modalities requires non-rigid transformation for proper registration. Techniques to register chest X-ray CT and Whole Body PET images were developed and evaluated. Accuracy of 3-D elastic transformation was tested by phantom study. Studies on patients with lung carcinoma were used to validate the technique in localizing the 18-FDG uptake and in correlating PET to X-ray CT images. The fused images showed an accurate alignment and provided confident identification of the detailed anatomy of the CT with the functional information of the PET images.