Deformable Image Registration Laboratory

Currently, our data sets consist of:

• Thoracic 4DCT images acquired as part of the standard planning process for the treatment of thoracic malignancies at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and
• Inspiratory and expiratory breath-hold CT image pairs acquired from the National Heart Lung Blood Institute COPDgene study archive.

Each available image data set has associated with it a coordinate list of anatomical landmarks that have been manually identified and registered by an expert in thoracic imaging, with repeat registration performed by multiple observers to estimate the spatial variance in feature identification. The point sets serve as a reference for evaluating DIR spatial accuracy within the lung for each case. Detailed descriptions of the available images and landmark sets are contained herein.

Investigators are encouraged to complete our request form for access to the image volumes for registration with their own DIR algorithms. Optionally, published spatial accuracy results will be posted for comparison across algorithms and implementations. Additionally, we welcome suggested additions to the data set provided here, as well as links to currently available image sets and DIR algorithms online.

A comprehensive database of reference standard image sets for objective and consistent evaluation of deformable image registration (DIR) spatial accuracy are available for download. Along with a summary of the image and feature characteristics for the currently available reference datasets.