OBJECTIVE

This work evaluates current 3-D image registration tools on clinically acquired abdominal computed tomography (CT) scans.

METHODS

Thirteen abdominal organs were manually labeled on a set of 100 CT images, and the 100 labeled images (i.e., atlases) were pairwise registered based on intensity information with six registration tools (FSL, ANTS-CC, ANTS-QUICK-MI, IRTK, NIFTYREG, and DEEDS). The Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), mean surface distance, and Hausdorff distance were calculated on the registered organs individually. Permutation tests and indifference-zone ranking were performed to examine the statistical and practical significance, respectively.

RESULTS

The results suggest that DEEDS yielded the best registration performance. However, due to the overall low DSC values, and substantial portion of low-performing outliers, great care must be taken when image registration is used for local interpretation of abdominal CT.

CONCLUSION

There is substantial room for improvement in image registration for abdominal CT.

SIGNIFICANCE

All data and source code are available so that innovations in registration can be directly compared with the current generation of tools without excessive duplication of effort.