An Anatomic-Based 3D Registration System of Multimodality and Atlas Data in Neurosurgery

The knowledge of patient neuro-anatomy is key information, at least in the understanding of the pathological processes and in the elaboration of precise treatment strategies in neurosurgery. In addition to classical radiology systems like angiography, CT scanner or MRI have greatly contributed to the improvement of the patient anatomy investigation. Each examination modality still carries its own information and the need to make a synthesis between them is obvious but still makes different problems hard to solve. There is no unique imaging facility which can bring out the whole set of known anatomical structures, brought together in a neuro-anatomical atlas. Nevertheless, it is very important for the physician to assign location to these structures from the images delivered by the studies. Only an accurate fusion of these data may help the physician to recognize the precise anatomical structures involved in the therapeutic process he has to set up.