VFMStitch: A Vision-Foundation-Model Empowered Framework for 3D Ultrasound Stitching via Geometric–Semantic Feature Fusion

Xing Yao, Nick DiSanto, Runxuan Yu, Jiacheng Wang, Daiwei Lu, Gabriel A Arenas, Baris Oguz, Alison Marie Pouch, Nadav Schwartz, Brett Byram, Ipek Oguz

Keywords: vision foundation model, DINOv3, ultrasound, stitching, point cloud, feature fusion

Abstract: 3D ultrasound (3DUS) stitching expands the field-of-view (FOV) by registering partially overlapping 3DUS volumes acquired from different probe positions. This task is intrinsically difficult due to large inter-volume translations and rotations, the impact of the sector-shaped FOV, as well as the heavy noise and artifacts inherent to ultrasound. With the rapid progress of Vision Foundation Models (VFMs) such as DINOv3, VFM-derived features have recently shown promise for downstream medical image registration tasks. However, existing VFM-based approaches primarily focus on deformable registration and are rarely evaluated for rigid alignment under large motions. Moreover, the feasibility of leveraging VFM-derived features for robust 3DUS stitching remains largely unexplored. In this study, we introduce VFMStitch, the first training-free, VFM-empowered 3DUS stitching framework that integrates point-cloud (PCD)–based geometric features with DINOv3-derived semantic descriptors. Extensive experiments demonstrate that VFMStitch substantially improves rigid registration accuracy compared to existing methods, validating the effectiveness of geometric–semantic fusion for challenging 3DUS stitching scenarios.

Primary Subject Area: Image Registration

Secondary Subject Area: Foundation Models

Registration Requirement: Yes

Reproducibility: https://github.com/MedICL-VU/VFMStitch

Visa & Travel: Yes

Read CFP & Author Instructions: Yes

Originality Policy: Yes

Single-blind & Not Under Review Elsewhere: Yes

LLM Policy: Yes

Submission Number: 226