Iterative closest graph matching for non-rigid 3D/2D coronary arteries registration

Background and objective Fusion of the preoperative computed tomography angiography and intraoperative X-ray angiography images can considerably enhance the visual perception of physicians during percutaneous coronary interventions. This technique can provide 3D information of the arteries and reduce the uncertainty of 2D guidance images. For this purpose, 3D/2D vascular registration with high accuracy and robustness is crucial for performing accurate surgery. Methods In this study, we propose an iterative closest graph matching (ICGM) method that utilizes an alternative iteration framework including correspondence and transformation phases. A coarse-to-fine matching approach based on redundant graph matching is proposed for the correspondence phase. The transformation phase involves rigid and non-rigid transformations, in which rigid transformation is calculated using a closed-form solution, and non-rigid transformation is achieved using a statistical shape model established from a synthetic deformation dataset. Results The proposed method is evaluated and compared with nine state-of-the-art methods on simulated data and clinical datasets. Experiments demonstrate that our method is insensitive to the pose of data and robust to noise and deformation. Moreover, it outperforms other methods in terms of registering real data. Conclusions Given its high capture range, the proposed method can register 3D vessels without prior initialization in clinical practice.