A Comprehensive Survey Analysis for Present Solutions of Medical Image Fusion and Future Directions

The track of medical imaging has witnessed several advancements in the last years. Several medical imaging modalities have appeared in the last decades including X-ray, Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance (MR), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and ultrasound imaging. Generally, medical images are used for the diagnosis purpose. Each type of acquired images has some merits and limitations. To maximize medical images utilization for the purpose of diagnosis, medical imaging fusion trend has appeared as a hot research field. Different medical imaging modalities are fused to obtain new images with complementary information. This paper presents a survey study of medical imaging modalities and their characteristics. In addition, different medical image fusion approaches and their appropriate quality metrics are presented. The main aim of this comprehensive survey analysis is to contribute in the advancement of medical image approaches that can help for better diagnosis of different diseases.