A Review of Point Feature Based Medical Image Registration

Point features, as the basis of lines, surfaces, and bodies, are commonly used in medical image registration. To obtain an elegant spatial transformation of extracted feature points, many point set matching algorithms (PMs) have been developed to match two point sets by optimizing multifarious distance functions. There are ample reviews related to medical image registration and PMs which summarize their basic principles and main algorithms separately. However, to data, detailed summary of PMs used in medical image registration in different clinical environments has not been published. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the existing key techniques of the PMs applied to medical image registration according to the basic principles and clinical applications. As the core technique of the PMs, geometric transformation models are elaborated in this paper, demonstrating the mechanism of point set registration. We also focus on the clinical applications of the PMs and propose a practical classification method according to their applications in different clinical surgeries. The aim of this paper is to provide a summary of point-feature-based methods used in medical image registration and to guide doctors or researchers interested in this field to choose appropriate techniques in their research.