In this paper, we propose a new and accurate 3D reconstruction technique for the scoliotic spine from a pair planar and conventional radiographic images (postero-anterior and lateral). The proposed model uses a priori hierarchical global knowledge, both on the geometric structure of the whole spine and of each vertebra. More precisely, it relies on the specification of two 3D templates. The first, a rough geometric template on which rigid admissible deformations are defined, is used to ensure a crude registration of the whole spine. 3D reconstruction is then refined for each vertebra, by a template on which nonlinear admissible global deformations are modeled, with statistical modal analysis of the pathological deformations observed on a representative scoliotic vertebra population. This unsupervised coarse-to-fine 3D reconstruction procedure is stated as a double energy function minimization problems efficiently solved with a stochastic optimization algorithm. The proposed method, tested on several pairs of biplanar radiographic images with scoliotic deformities, is comparable in terms of accuracy with the classical CT-scan technique while being unsupervised and requiring a lower amount of radiation for the patient.

This paper presents a new 3D reconstruction method of the scoliotic vertebrae of a spine, using two conventional radiographic views (postero-anterior and lateral), and global prior knowledge on the geometrical structure of each vertebra. This geometrical knowledge is efficiently captured by a statistical deformable template integrating a set of admissible deformations, expressed by the first modes of variation in the Karhunen-Loeve expansion of the pathological deformations observed on a representative scoliotic vertebra population. The proposed reconstruction method consists in fitting the projections of this deformable template with the segmented contours of the corresponding vertebra on the two radiographic views. The 3D reconstruction problem is stated as the minimization of a cost function for each vertebra and solved with a gradient descent technique. The reconstruction of the spine is then made vertebra by vertebra. This 3D reconstruction method has been successfully tested on several biplanar radiographic images, yielding very promising results.