skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The feasibility of head motion tracking in helical CT: A step toward motion correction

Journal Article · · Medical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1118/1.4794481· OSTI ID:22130589
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Medical Radiation Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2141 (Australia)
  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium and Medical Imaging Research Center, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven (Belgium)
  3. School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 (Australia)

Purpose: To establish a practical and accurate motion tracking method for the development of rigid motion correction methods in helical x-ray computed tomography (CT). Methods: A commercially available optical motion tracking system provided 6 degrees of freedom pose measurements at 60 Hz. A 4 Multiplication-Sign 4 calibration matrix was determined to convert raw pose data acquired in tracker coordinates to a fixed CT coordinate system with origin at the isocenter of the scanner. Two calibration methods, absolute orientation (AO), and a new method based on image registration (IR), were compared by means of landmark analysis and correlation coefficient in phantom images coregistered using the derived motion transformations. Results: Transformations calculated using the IR-derived calibration matrix were found to be more accurate, with positional errors less than 0.5 mm (mean RMS), and highly correlated image voxel intensities. The AO-derived calibration matrix yielded larger mean RMS positional errors ( Asymptotically-Equal-To 1.0 mm), and poorer correlation coefficients. Conclusions: The authors have demonstrated the feasibility of accurate motion tracking for retrospective motion correction in helical CT. Their new IR-based calibration method based on image registration and function minimization was simpler to perform and delivered more accurate calibration matrices. This technique is a useful tool for future work on rigid motion correction in helical CT and potentially also other imaging modalities.

OSTI ID:
22130589
Journal Information:
Medical Physics, Vol. 40, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2013 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English