System and method for automatic registration of 4D (3D plus time) renal perfusion MRI data

A computer implemented method for registering digital renal perfusion images, the method performed by the computer comprising the steps of:

• receiving a sequence of digital renal perfusion images;
• selecting a volume of interest (VOI) containing a kidney in a reference renal perfusion image in said sequence of images;
• building a template from 3D intensity gradients of a subset of points in said reference image VOI, wherein building the template comprises selecting those points in said VOI whose intensity gradient magnitudes are above a threshold, wherein each selected point is associated with its corresponding intensity gradient magnitude and intensity gradient orientation vector;
• and
• calculating translational displacements at corresponding points in a current image in said sequence of images that maximize a similarity measure between the current image and the template.

A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computer to perform the method steps for registering digital renal perfusion images, the method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a volume of interest (VOI) containing a kidney in a reference renal perfusion image;
• computing 3D intensity gradients for a plurality of points in said VOI of said reference renal perfusion image;
• computing 3D intensity gradients for a plurality of points in a search window of a current renal perfusion image, wherein said current image search window is determined based on a location of the kidney in the reference image VOI and its maximum possible displacements;
• and
• maximizing a similarity measure between the reference image VOI and the current image search window, wherein said similarity measure is a function of said 3D intensity gradients computed for said reference image and said current image.