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Four-Dimensional Biomedical Imaging
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16703 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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10 / 1989 |
1,864 Words |
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Calvin Pierce
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Computer technology has provided medicine with new imaging tools that allow physicians to peer into the inner workings of the body to search for signs of disease. X-ray computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, ultrasound, and other imaging techniques provide valuable information about anatomic structures and physiologic states.
But it is no simple matter to convert the wealth of data produced by these tools into meaningful images that can be used in diagnosing and treating disease. In fact, the ability of biomedical imaging technology to generate information has far outstripped the capacity of computers to process and interpret the data, says Richard A. Robb, director of the Mayo Clinic's Biotechnology Computer Resource in Rochester, Minnesota. "Addressing that problem is what our resource is about," he says.
Robb, professor of biophysics at the Mayo Clinic, has worked for 15 years to help push forward the frontiers of biomedical imaging. He and his associates have developed sophisticated computer systems for displaying three-dimensional (3-D) images that researchers and physicians can readily manipulate and measure. By using a sequence of 3-D displays the Mayo Clinic imaging system can produce what Robb calls "four-dimensional" (4-D) moving images of such things as a beating heart, lungs filling with air, or a skull being rotated in space. He defines the fourth dimension in imaging, which is characterized by movement, as "sets of 3-D images related through time." This technology is opening up powerful new ways to visualize and measure the human body in health and disease.
As a foundation for its present work, the Mayo Computer Resource has facilitated development of a specialized X-ray imaging device that can produce high-resolution, multidimensional images. Although low-resolution 3-D images can be produced from standard computerized tomography (CT), Robb and his associates have developed a machine specifically for the purpose of testing the limits of 3-D and 4-D imaging. The product of their work is the dynamic spatial reconstructor (DSR), a highly advanced, 3-D version of the conventional CT scanner.
The Mayo Clinic research team has also developed a comprehensive software package called ANALYZE that converts data from the DSR into 3-D and 4-D images and allows users to manipulate and study the results using dedicated image-analysis workstations. The ANALYZE software is flexible enough to handle 3-D data generated not just by the DSR but by many other imaging devices. Refining this image-analysis software and making it more widely available for use with a variety of imaging devices has become a central part of the work of the Mayo Biotechnology Computer Resource, according to Robb.
The Big Eye
Development of the DSR began in 1975 at a time of rapid progress in biomedical imaging. The advent of CT scanning technology in the early 1970's gave impetus to Robb and his colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, who were looking for ways to create 3-D representations of the motion of the heart and lungs using X-ray images. The early CT scanners produced two-dimensional (2-D) images using mathematical techniques that could be adapted to produce 3-D and 4-D images.
The researchers set out to design
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