• Masaki Takao, Nobuhiko Sugano, Takashi Nishii, Hidenobu Miki, Tsuyoshi Koyama, Jun Masumoto, Yoshinobu Sato, Shinichi Tamura, and Hideki Yoshikawa.
• Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan. masaki-tko@umin.ac.jp
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2005 Nov 1; 22 (5): 656-60.

PurposeTo estimate the accuracy and consistency of a method using a voxel-based MR image registration algorithm for precise monitoring of knee joint diseases.Materials And MethodsRigid body transformation was calculated using a normalized cross-correlation (NCC) algorithm involving simple manual segmentation of the bone region based on its anatomical features. The accuracy of registration was evaluated using four phantoms, followed by a consistency test using MR data from the 11 patients with knee joint disease.ResultsThe registration accuracy in the phantom experiment was 0.49+/-0.19 mm (SD) for the femur and 0.56+/-0.21 mm (SD) for the tibia. The consistency value in the experiment using clinical data was 0.69+/-0.25 mm (SD) for the femur and 0.77+/-0.37 mm (SD) for the tibia. These values were all smaller than a voxel (1.25 x 1.25 x 1.5 mm).ConclusionThe present method based on an NCC algorithm can be used to register serial MR images of the knee joint with error on the order of a sub-voxel. This method would be useful for precisely assessing therapeutic response and monitoring knee joint diseases; normalized cross-correlation; accuracy.J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2005. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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