<title>3D reconstruction, visualization, and measurement of MRI images</title>

Abstract

This paper primarily focuses on manipulating 2D medical image data that often come in as Magnetic Resonance and reconstruct them into 3D volumetric images. Clinical diagnosis and therapy planning using 2D medical images can become a torturous problem for a physician. For example, our 2D breast images of a patient mimic a breast carcinoma. In reality, the patient has 'fat necrosis', a benign breast lump. Physicians need powerful, accurate and interactive 3D visualization systems to extract anatomical details and examine the root cause of the problem. Our proposal overcomes the above mentioned limitations through the development of volume rendering algorithms and extensive use of parallel, distributed and neural networks computing strategies. MRI coupled with 3D imaging provides a reliable method for quantifying 'fat necrosis' characteristics and progression. Our 3D interactive application enables a physician to compute spatial measurements and quantitative evaluations and, from a general point of view, use all 3D interactive tools that can help to plan a complex surgical operation. The capability of our medical imaging application can be extended to reconstruct and visualize 3D volumetric brain images. Our application promises to be an important tool in neurological surgery planning, time and cost reduction.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.