Automated selection of anterior and posterior commissures based on a deformable atlas and its evaluation based on manual selections by neurosurgeons

We are developing and evaluating a system that will facilitate the placement of deep brain stimulators (DBS) used to treat movement disorders including Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. Although our system does not rely on the common reference system used for functional neurosurgical procedures, which is based on the anterior and posterior commissure points (AC and PC), automatic and accurate localization of these points is necessary to communicate the positions of our targets. In this paper, we present an automated method for AC and PC selection that uses non-rigidly deformable atlases. To evaluate the accuracy of our multi-atlas based method, we compare it against the manual selection of the AC and PC points by 43 neurosurgeons (38 attendings and 5 residents) and show that its accuracy is submillimetric compared to the median of their selections. We also analyze the effect of AC-PC localization inaccuracy on the localization of common DBS targets.

[2]  Aviva Abosch,et al.  Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation for Essential Tremor: Relation of Lead Location to Outcome , 2004, Neurosurgery.

[3]  William M. Wells,et al.  Validation of Image Segmentation and Expert Quality with an Expectation-Maximization Algorithm , 2002, MICCAI.

[4]  Benoit M. Dawant,et al.  The adaptive bases algorithm for intensity-based nonrigid image registration , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[6]  Torsten Rohlfing,et al.  Performance-based classifier combination in atlas-based image segmentation using expectation-maximization parameter estimation , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[7]  Philip A. Starr,et al.  Placement of Deep Brain Stimulators into the Subthalamic Nucleus or Globus pallidus internus: Technical Approach , 2003, Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery.

[8]  William M. Wells,et al.  Simultaneous truth and performance level estimation (STAPLE): an algorithm for the validation of image segmentation , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[9]  Aaron Carass,et al.  Automatic estimation of midsagittal plane and AC-PC alignment on nonrigid registration , 2006, 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: Nano to Macro, 2006..

[10]  Benoit M. Dawant,et al.  Computer-aided placement of deep brain stimulators: from planning to intraoperative guidance , 2005, SPIE Medical Imaging.

[11]  Benoit M. Dawant,et al.  Automatic Selection of DBS Target Points Using Multiple Electrophysiological Atlases , 2005, MICCAI.

[12]  Torsten Rohlfing,et al.  Multi-classifier framework for atlas-based image segmentation , 2004, CVPR 2004.

[13]  Benoit M. Dawant,et al.  Computer-aided placement of deep brain stimulators: from planningto intraoperative guidance , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging.

[14]  Torsten Rohlfing,et al.  Multi-classifier framework for atlas-based image segmentation , 2004, Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2004. CVPR 2004..