Automatic Scan Plane Planning Method for Brain MRI

Introduction Consistent scan plane prescription for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is very important clinically for easy comparison of images across subjects and in serial evaluation of longitudinal exams. Typical workflow of scan plane set up requires careful manual positioning, and suffers from inter-operator variability. To date, some automated systems for brain imaging slice plane planning have been demonstrated. These methods generally use either multi-parametric probabilistic atlases or segmentation of certain anatomical landmarks in order to align and register images. Therefore they are limited either by the population being represented by the atlas, or by the complexity of identifying landmarks in scout images. We propose a rapid and novel scheme for registering brain images using an implicit symmetry axis determination. This algorithm is shown to be robust to asymmetry as well as to very large motion. We have incorporated this approach in a clinical MR system and demonstrated its usefulness in automatically obtaining consistent imaging planes across examinations irrespective of subject position.