Paper ID: 2308.01318

Framing image registration as a landmark detection problem for better representation of clinical relevance

Diana Waldmannstetter, Benedikt Wiestler, Julian Schwarting, Ivan Ezhov, Marie Metz, Spyridon Bakas, Bhakti Baheti, Satrajit Chakrabarty, Jan S. Kirschke, Rolf A. Heckemann, Marie Piraud, Florian Kofler, Bjoern H. Menze

Nowadays, registration methods are typically evaluated based on sub-resolution tracking error differences. In an effort to reinfuse this evaluation process with clinical relevance, we propose to reframe image registration as a landmark detection problem. Ideally, landmark-specific detection thresholds are derived from an inter-rater analysis. To approximate this costly process, we propose to compute hit rate curves based on the distribution of errors of a sub-sample inter-rater analysis. Therefore, we suggest deriving thresholds from the error distribution using the formula: median + delta * median absolute deviation. The method promises differentiation of previously indistinguishable registration algorithms and further enables assessing the clinical significance in algorithm development.

Submitted: Jul 31, 2023