A neonatal bimodal MR-CT head template

In this paper, we present an approach to create a
fully registered bimodal MR-CT head template for neonates with a gestational
age of 39 to 42 weeks. Such a template is essential for structural and
functional brain studies, which require precise geometry of the head including
cranial bones and fontanels-sutures. Due to the special characteristics of the problem (which requires
inter-subject inter-modality registration), a two-step intensity-based
registration method is proposed to globally and locally align CT images with an
available MR template. By applying groupwise registration, the new neonatal CT
template is then created in full alignment with the MR template to build a
bimodal MR-CT template.

本研究提出一种构建胎龄39至42周新生儿完全配准的双模态磁共振（Magnetic Resonance, MR）-计算机断层扫描（Computed Tomography, CT）头部模板的方法。此类模板对于结构与功能脑研究至关重要，相关研究需获取包含颅骨、囟门及颅缝结构的头部精准几何模型。鉴于该问题需实现跨被试跨模态配准的特殊性，本研究提出一种基于强度的两步配准方法，可实现CT图像与现有MR模板的全局及局部对齐。通过应用逐组配准，本研究可构建与MR模板完全对齐的新生儿CT新模板，最终得到双模态MR-CT头部模板。