Fusion of PET and CT images using wavelet transform

While information about anatomy is available in CT images, information about physiology and metabolism is available in PET images. To integrate both information, the two images are fused. Image fusion methods include simple methods like pixel averaging and sophisticated methods like wavelet transformation. An advantage of using wavelet transformation is that it preserves significant parts of each image. After creating lesions of 10, 8, 6 mm in a NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) based cardiac torso (NCAT) phantom, PET images were simulated using SimSET simulator. Attenuation maps of the activity phantom were used as CT images. Each of the PET and CT images was divided into an approximation image and three detailed images by the wavelet transform. The corresponding transformed images generated from the PET and CT images were fused in nine different ways to generate composite images, which were compared to the original images. The basis of comparison is the lesion-to-tissue contrast in the fused image in comparison to the lesion-to-tissue contrast in the original PET and CT images. Our results showed that except for one method, the lesion-to-tissue contrast in the fused image was higher than that of the CT images. In the first six methods, the lesion-to-tissue contrast in the fused image was less than the contrast, in the PET image. In the other three methods, the contrast in the fused image was higher than in the PET image. This was true in cases of 10, 8, 6 mm lesions. In conclusion, we have show that the approximation image produced a better ultimate image and that the lesion-to-tissue contrast in the fused image was also better than that of the original PET and CT images. This is because the approximation image is comprised of fundamental information of the signal (low frequency) that directly affects the image contrast.