In this tutorial, you will learn how to use SimVTK to perform crops, translations, mirror flips about an axis or axes, and rotations of axes, to properly prepare two volumes so that SimITK can be used to perform a multimodal image registration. Two modalities will be used in this tutorial: Computed Topographic Imaging (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR).
The initial files given are raw phantom data from a CT scan and an MR scan of the same spinal phantom. These are raw data files and contain the phantom as well as the construct keeping the spine suspended. Thus, the data files will need to be properly adjusted to obtain the best registration.
All files created throughout this entire tutorial are available online for reference to ensure success in using the SimITKVTK software suite. Also ensure that workflows are saved often to ensure that progress is not lost.
As a final note, block names will be in bold face type while parameters will be italicized to remove confusion and to aid in understanding.
Preparing the Volumes
Download the two phantom datasets: PhantomMR.vtk and PhantomCT.vtk. Open each volume with the viewing software of your choosing and note the abundance of non-spinal data present in both volumes. This data will need to be cropped out as it is not the target region.
Once these files are on your system, please proceed to Configuring the Simulation Parameters before choosing your desired Spine Registration tutorial.
> Continue onto the Configuration Parameters section.