Non-rigid registration of contrast-enhanced dynamic MR mammography

Abstract

Contrast-enhanced dynamic MRI (CE-MRI) or MR mammography (MRM) is an alternative method to conventional X-ray mammography for non-invasive detection of breast cancer. It is superior in its 3-D tomography, but requires image registration to model inevitable patient movement. The current registration paradigm uses rigid registration to model global motion and multi-resolution non-rigid registration to model local motion. However, the optimization is slow and can lead to unreliable results. This thesis presents a new and intuitive contrast-enhancement model for normalized mutual information (NMI) non-rigid registration, which matches or surpasses traditional NMI registration in registration quality and is much faster. The new registration scheme is combined with the clinically established 3 time-point (3TP) method so clinicians can reliably analyze MRM registration.