3D reconstruction and visualization of medical images : computed tomography

Abstract

The conventional scanning such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provide the radiologist or the medical examiner only with a set of two dimensional static outputs on film, which are images of thin slices of the scanned body part. To produce three dimensional images, many scans are made and combined by computers to produce a three dimensional model. The professional can also to reconstruct the images based on his experience and expertise. However, these processes have become time consuming, sometimes manual error prone, and limit the use of the scanned data. Three dimensional visualization methods have overcome this problem by providing the user with a three dimensional representation of the patient’s anatomy reconstructed from the raw scanned data. Three dimensional visualization technologies not only diagnose but also enable accurate surgical planning. A graphical user interface was developed using MATLAB for 3D visualization of the medical images through slice planes, isosurface, isocaps and animation. Slice planes are useful for probing volume data sets to discover where interesting regions exist. The isosurface shows the overall structure of a volume. The isocaps show the interior of a cut-away volume, cap the end of a volume that would otherwise appear empty and enhance the visibility of the isosurface limits. Animation provides a way to show how two dimensional DICOM image move through the volume for better understanding that may otherwise be difficult to fully absorb.