Piecewise multi-modal spine registration to build personalized neck musculoskeletal model

An accurate and reliable procedure to co-register CT and MR images of the cervical spine (C1-C7) is essential to construct a personalized model of the neck musculoskeletal system. In this study, we proposed principal component analysis (PCA) based a simple and fully automated registration technique to register multimodal 3D images of the cervical spine and to determine the differences in their angular orientations. We used CT and MRI data from three healthy male participants to co-register the bimodal cervical imaging data. The results showed notable differences (flexion-extension - 10.3°, lateral bending - 4.8°, and axial rotation - 6.0°) in the 3D orientations of the cervical spine (C1 - C7) in both CT and MR imaging modalities.