Evaluation of multiresolution elastic matching using MRI data

In order to evaluate the performance of our elastic matching system, we have created a digitized atlas from a young normal male brain, using 135 myelin-stained sections at 700 micron spacing. Software was written to enter and edit regional anatomic contours, which were stacked and aligned to create a three-dimensional atlas. This anatomy atlas can be elastically matched to CT or MRI scans, and then superimposed on an aligned set of PET scans of the same subject. We evaluated the matching system by comparing computer- generated contours with expert-defined contours for several subcortical structures, based on scans from six neurologically normal subjects. Previously, we reported the results from experiments that used CT data. This paper reports our progress towards the matching of the atlas with MRI scans.