A new method for assessing PET-MRI coregistration

Positron emission tomography (PET) images are acquired for many purposes, from diagnostic assessment to aiding in the development of novel therapies. Whatever the intended use, it is often necessary to distinguish between different anatomical regions within these images. Because of this, magnetic resonance images (MRIs) are generally acquired to provide an anatomical reference. This reference will only be accurate if the PET image is properly coregistered to the MRI; yet currently, a method to evaluate PET-MRI coregistration accuracy does not exist. This problem is compounded by the fact that two visually indistinguishable coregistration results can produce estimates of ligand binding that vary significantly. Therefore, the focus of this work was to develop a method that can evaluate coregistration performance based on measured ligand binding within certain regions of the coregistered PET image. The evaluation method is based on the premise that a more accurate coregistration will result in higher ligand binding in certain anatomical regions defined by the MRI. This fully automated method was able to assess coregistration results within the variance of an expert manual rater and shows promise as a possible coregistration cost function.