SU-E-J-64: Towards a Patient Specific Deformation Model in the Male Pelvis for IGRT via Limited Angle Imaging

To evaluate the feasibility of patient specific deformation models (PSDM) in the male pelvis for IGRT by limited angular imaging.

In IGRT via limited angular imaging, insufficient angular projections are acquired to uniquely determine a 3D attenuation distribution. For highly limited geometries, image quality may be too poor for successful non-rigid registration. This can be overcome by restricting the transformation space to one containing only feasible transformations learned from prior 3D images. This has been successfully applied in the lung region where a majority of deformation is due to respiratory motion which can be adequately observed at planning time with RCCT. Typically, the phases of the RCCT are registered together to form an group-wise mean image and transformations to each training image. PCA is then performed on the transformation displacement vector fields. The transformation is found at treatment time by registration of digitally reconstructed radiographs of the transformed image to the measured projections, optimizing over the parameters of the PCA subspace. In the male pelvis, deformation is much more complicated than respiratory deformation and is largely inter-fractional due to changes in bladder and rectal contents, articulation, and motion of the bowels. A similar model is developed for the male pelvis which takes into account pelvic anatomical information and handles the more complicated deformation space.

Using the leave-one-out method, dice similarity coefficients in the prostate compared with manual segmentations are increased over the those obtained by rigid registration and are comparable with those obtained by 3D non-rigid registration methods.

This method produces better results than rigid registration and is comparable with results obtained by 3D/3D registration even though it uses limited angle projections. However, its relies on daily training CTs, so it is not yet a viable clinical method. Funding provided in part by Siemens Medical.