Alignment, segmentation and 3-D reconstruction of serial sections based on automated algorithm

A well-defined three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of bone-cartilage transitional structures is crucial for the osteochondral restoration. This paper presents an accurate, computationally efficient and fully-automated algorithm for the alignment and segmentation of two-dimensional (2-D) serial to construct the 3-D model of bone-cartilage transitional structures. Entire system includes the following five components: (1) image harvest, (2) image registration, (3) image segmentation, (4) 3-D reconstruction and visualization, and (5) evaluation. A computer program was developed in the environment of Matlab for the automatic alignment and segmentation of serial sections. Automatic alignment algorithm based on the position's cross-correlation of the anatomical characteristic feature points of two sequential sections. A method combining an automatic segmentation and an image threshold processing was applied to capture the regions and structures of interest. SEM micrograph and 3-D model reconstructed directly in digital microscope were used to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of this strategy. The morphology of 3-D model constructed by serial sections is consistent with the results of SEM micrograph and 3-D model of digital microscope.