Patent ID: 8675996

Claim:
A method for registering a first two-dimensional image of a cardiocirculatory structure and a three-dimensional image of the cardiocirculatory structure, comprising: acquiring the three-dimensional image including the cardiocirculatory structure using a first imaging modality; projecting the acquired three-dimensional image into two-dimensions to produce a two-dimensional projection image of the cardiocirculatory structure; segmenting a structure of interest either from the acquired three-dimensional image or from the two-dimensional projection image; acquiring the first two-dimensional image of the cardiocirculatory structure using a second imaging modality; segmenting the structure of interest from the acquired first two-dimensional image; generating a first distance map based on the two-dimensional projection image in which each pixel of the two-dimensional projection image is labeled with a distance to a nearest image feature pixel of the two-dimensional projection image; generating a second distance map based on the acquired first two-dimensional image in which each pixel of the acquired first two-dimensional image is labeled with a distance to a nearest image feature pixel of the acquired first two-dimensional image; and performing registration of the acquired three-dimensional image and the acquired first two-dimensional image by minimizing a difference between the first and second distance maps, wherein each of the above steps are performed using a computer system.