FULLY AUTOMATED WHOLE-BODY REGISTRATION IN MICE USING AN ARTICULATED SKELETON ATLAS
In this paper, we propose a fully automated articulated registration approach for whole-body 3D data of mice. The method is based on a hierarchical anatomical model of the skeletal system where we specified position and degrees of freedom for each joint. Model fitting is performed by traversing a hierarchical part-tree, which enables a coarse-to-fine registration from the inner articulations outwards. The method was tested on 12 micro-CT volumes, giving accurate alignment of the skeletal structures in all cases.