Cited by 107Medical Imaging and AnalysisMedical Image Segmentation TechniquesSpinal Fractures and Fixation Techniques

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 27 of the 27 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 6 of the 18 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

3D–2D image registration for target localization in spine surgery: investigation of similarity metrics providing robustness to content mismatch

Open access
De Silva, T, Uneri, A, Ketcha, M D, Reaungamornrat, S, Kleinszig, G, Vogt, S, Aygun, N, Lo, S-F, Wolinsky, J-P, Siewerdsen, J H·2016·Physics in Medicine & Biology

Abstract

Abstract In image-guided spine surgery, robust three-dimensional to two-dimensional (3D–2D) registration of preoperative computed tomography (CT) and intraoperative radiographs can be challenged by the image content mismatch associated with the presence of surgical instrumentation and implants as well as soft-tissue resection or deformation. This work investigates image similarity metrics in 3D–2D registration offering improved robustness against mismatch, thereby improving performance and reducing or eliminating the need for manual masking. The performance of four gradient-based image similarity metrics (gradient information (GI), gradient correlation (GC), gradient information with linear scaling (GS), and gradient orientation (GO)) with a multi-start optimization strategy was evaluated in an institutional review board-approved retrospective clinical study using 51 preoperative CT images and 115 intraoperative mobile radiographs. Registrations were tested with and without polygonal masks as a function of the number of multistarts employed during optimization. Registration accuracy was evaluated in terms of the projection distance error (PDE) and assessment of failure modes (PDE > 30 mm) that could impede reliable vertebral level localization. With manual polygonal masking and 200 multistarts, the GC and GO metrics exhibited robust performance with 0% gross failures and median PDE < 6.4 mm (±4.4 mm interquartile range (IQR)) and a median runtime of 84 s (plus upwards of 1–2 min for manual masking). Excluding manual polygonal masks and decreasing the number of multistarts to 50 caused the GC-based registration to fail at a rate of >14%; however, GO maintained robustness with a 0% gross failure rate. Overall, the GI, GC, and GS metrics were susceptible to registration errors associated with content mismatch, but GO provided robust registration (median PDE = 5.5 mm, 2.6 mm IQR) without manual masking and with an improved runtime (29.3 s). The GO metric improved the registration accuracy and robustness in the presence of strong image content mismatch. This capability could offer valuable assistance and decision support in spine level localization in a manner consistent with clinical workflow.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This study evaluated four gradient-based similarity metrics for 3D–2D CT-to-radiograph registration in spine surgery under image content mismatch. Gradient orientation (GO) was most robust, maintaining 0% gross failures without manual polygonal masking and with shorter runtime.

Key findings

  • With manual polygonal masking and 200 multistarts, GC and GO achieved 0% gross failures and median projection distance error (PDE) < 6.4 mm (±4.4 mm IQR), with median runtime of 84 s plus 1–2 min for manual masking.
  • Without manual polygonal masks and with 50 multistarts, GC failed at >14%, while GO maintained 0% gross failure, median PDE = 5.5 mm (2.6 mm IQR), and runtime = 29.3 s.
  • GI and GS were susceptible to content mismatch; in the R(p, 200) configuration they had >16% failure, though GS improved gross failure rate over GI by approximately 50%. In R(r, 50), GC gross failure increased to 15%.
  • GO had the largest median capture range in the superior–inferior direction: 375 mm ± 122 mm IQR, versus GI 192 mm ± 214 mm, GC 345 mm ± 185 mm, and GS 293 mm ± 180 mm.

Methods

  • Institutional review board-approved retrospective clinical study using 51 preoperative CT images and 115 intraoperative mobile radiographs from thoracolumbar spine surgery; radiographs included 105 lateral and 10 anterior–posterior projections.
  • Four gradient-based similarity metrics were tested: gradient information (GI), gradient correlation (GC), gradient information with linear scaling (GS), and gradient orientation (GO), using multistart optimization with CMA-ES.
  • Registration performance was evaluated under three configurations—R(p, 200), R(p, 50), and R(r, 50)—using PDE, failure defined as PDE > 30 mm, runtime, objective-function search-space quality, and sensitivity to superior–inferior initialization.

Limitations

  • The paper states that spine deformation is not specifically addressed by the rigid registration approach, and that ongoing clinical evaluation is needed.
  • The paper states that manual polygonal masking is time-consuming, subjective, error-prone, and disruptive to workflow; GS and modified GC also require parameters that are non-trivial to determine automatically.
  • Evident from the text: the study is retrospective and single-institution, uses mostly lateral radiographs, and relies on neuroradiologist-annotated vertebral centroids as reference truth.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1088/0031-9155/61/8/3009

Cites

27 of 27 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

34 Own result · 30 Own interpretation · 15 No basis given · 4 Partly supported · 2 Sources not found · 1 Supported · 1 Supported so far · 1 No full text of the sources · 1 Not checked yet · 1 Own method · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 47 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 34
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 13
43 of 43
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The transformation between preoperative CT and intraoperative radiograph can be modeled as a rigid 6D transformation.

    “The registration is performed by optimizing the image similarity between the preoperative CT image and the intraoperative radiograph (I2:R2→R) in a rigid 6D transformation space.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Disparity in the superior–inferior (S–I) position is the most susceptible factor for level misidentification in spine registration.

    “disparity in the S–I position is believed to be the most susceptible for level misidentification (e.g. registration errors resulting in label positions away from the true level by one or more levels in the S–I direction).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The clinical need is to identify the correct vertebral level within approximately 30 mm PDE.

    “Given the clinical need to identify the correct vertebral level within approximately 30 mm PDE (i.e. within the correct vertebral body)”
3 of 3

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 107

Metadata

Authors
De Silva, T., Uneri, A., Ketcha, M. D., Reaungamornrat, S., Kleinszig, G., Vogt, S., Aygun, N., Lo, S.-F., Wolinsky, J.-P., & Siewerdsen, J. H.
Affiliations
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Siemens (Germany) (DE)
  • Johns Hopkins Medical Institute
Corresponding author
Siewerdsen, J H
Venue
Physics in Medicine & Biology
Published
2016-03-18
Volume
61
Issue
8
Pages
3009-3025
ISSN
  • 0031-9155 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-6560
OpenAlex
W2329673985
Cited by
107
References
27
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 2
FWCI
5.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Physics in Medicine and Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (R01-EB-017226)
  • Siemens Healthcare
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Medical Imaging and Analysis
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Medical Image Segmentation Techniques
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Spinal Fractures and Fixation Techniques
Keywords
image-guided spine surgery, image similarity measures, gradient direction, gradient correlation, gradient information, preoperative CT, multi-start optimization, surgical instrumentation, soft tissue deformation
MeSH terms
Humans, Retrospective Studies, Spinal Diseases, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Imaging, Three-Dimensional, Surgery, Computer-Assisted

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-14, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-14 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review