Automated finite-element analysis for deformable registration of prostate images

Two major factors preventing the routine clinical use of finite-element analysis for image registration are: 1) the substantial labor required to construct a finite-element model for an individual patient's anatomy and 2) the difficulty of determining an appropriate set of finite-element boundary conditions. This paper addresses these issues by presenting algorithms that automatically generate a high quality hexahedral finite-element mesh and automatically calculate boundary conditions for an imaged patient. Medial shape models called m-reps are used to facilitate these tasks and reduce the effort required to apply finite-element analysis to image registration. Encouraging results are presented for the registration of CT image pairs which exhibit deformation caused by pressure from an endorectal imaging probe and deformation due to swelling.