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Three-dimensional reconstruction of cranial defect using active contour model and image registration

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Abstract

In neurosurgery, cranial incisions during craniotomy can be recovered by cranioplasty—a surgical operation using cranial implants to repair skull defects. However, surgeons often encounter difficulties when grafting prefabricated cranial plates into defective areas, since a perfect match to the cranial incision is difficult to achieve. Previous studies using mirroring technique, surface interpolation, or deformed template had limitations in skull reconstruction to match the patient’s original appearance. For this study, we utilized low-resolution and high-resolution computed tomography images from the patient to repair skull defects, whilst preserving the original shape. Since the accuracy of skull reconstruction was associated with the partial volume effects in the low-resolution images and the percentage of the skull defect in the high-resolution images, the low-resolution images with intact skull were resampled and thresholded followed by active contour model to suppress partial volume artifacts. The resulting low-resolution images were registered with the high-resolution ones, which exhibited different percentages of cranial defect, to extract the incised cranial part. Finally, mesh smoothing refined the three-dimensional model of the cranial defect. Simulation results indicate that the reconstruction was 93.94% accurate for a 20% skull material removal, and 97.76% accurate for 40% skull material removal. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm effectively creates a customized implant, which can readily be used in cranioplasty.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express appreciation to Kevin Fortune for his assistance in English language editing. This work is funded by the Department of Industrial Technology of Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, under the contract numbers 97-EC-17-A-19-S1-035 and 98-EC-17-A-19-S1-035.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, Dasyue Rd., Tainan City, East District, 70101, Taiwan

    Yuan-Lin Liao & Yung-Nien Sun

  2. Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong St., Beitou District, Taipei City, 11221, Taiwan

    Chia-Feng Lu & Yu-Te Wu

  3. Medical Augmented Reality Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, No. 5, Fuxing St., Guishan Township, Taoyuan County, 33305, Taiwan

    Chieh-Tsai Wu & Shih-Tseng Lee

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering, Chang Gung University, No. 259, Wenhua 1st Rd., Guishan Township, Taoyuan County, 33302, Taiwan

    Jiann-Der Lee

  5. Integrated Brain Research Laboratory, Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shipai Rd., Beitou District, Taipei City, 11217, Taiwan

    Yu-Te Wu

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  1. Yuan-Lin Liao
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Correspondence to Yu-Te Wu.

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Liao, YL., Lu, CF., Sun, YN. et al. Three-dimensional reconstruction of cranial defect using active contour model and image registration. Med Biol Eng Comput 49, 203–211 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0720-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0720-0

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