3D registration through pseudo x-ray image generation.
Registration of a pre operative plan with the intra operative position of the patient is still a largely unsolved problem. Current techniques generally require fiducials, either artificial or anatomic, to achieve the registration solution. Invariably these fiducials require implantation and/or direct digitisation. The technique described in this paper requires no digitisation or implantation of fiducials, but instead relies on the shape and form of the anatomy through a fully automated image comparison process. A pseudo image, generated from a virtual image intensifier's view of a CT dataset, is intra operatively compared with a real x-ray image. The principle is to align the virtual with the real image intensifier. The technique is an extension to the work undertaken by Domergue [1] and based on original ideas by Weese [4].