Optimized Scan Modes and Reconstruction Techniques for Three-Dimensional Display of Bone Structures

Abstract

The high quality three-dimensional (3D) presentation of computed tomography (CT) data has become a common technique since fast imaging systems and 3D software became widely available at the beginning of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the quality of the 3D images produced by standard 3D packages depends not only on several basic scanning parameters like voltage, amperage, slice, and imcrernent, but also on the primary reconstruction algorithm, image separation, and 3D reconstruction and shading method. Therefore, no standard 3D scanning method providing a high quality 3D display combined with an acceptable acquisition and reconstruction time has been established. New volume scanning methods such as the spiral CT offer additional methods to shorten the examination time. There are some problems for 3D imaging in the use of spiral CT. The aim of our study was to compare different scanning — and 3D — reconstruction methods in order to develop standard scanning sequences for routine 3D CT imaging.