Advanced Curved Planar Reformation: Flattening of Vascular Structures

Information

• Publication Type: Technical Report
• Workgroup(s)/Project(s): not specified
• Date: May 2003
• Number: TR-186-2-03-08
• Keywords: curved planar reformation, vessel analysis, computed tomography angiography

Abstract

Traditional volume visualization techniques may provide incomplete clinical information needed for many applications in medical visualization. Especially in the area of vascular visualization important features such as the patent lumen of a diseased vessel segment may not be visible. Curved Planar Reformation (CPR) has proven to be an acceptable practical solution. Existing CPR techniques, however, still have diagnostically relevant limitations. In this paper we introduce two advanced methods for efficient vessel visualization, based on the concept of CPR. Both methods benefit from relaxation of spatial coherence in favor of improved feature perception. We present a new technique to visualize the interior of a vessel in a single image. A vessel is re-sampled along a spiral around the vessel central axis. The helical spiral depicts the vessel volume. Furthermore, a method to display an entire vascular tree without mutually occluding vessels is presented. Minimal rotations around the branching points of a vessel tree eliminate occlusions. For each viewing direction the entire vessel structure is visible.

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BibTeX

@techreport{Kanitsar-2003-ADV,
  title =      "Advanced Curved Planar Reformation: Flattening of Vascular
               Structures",
  author =     "Armin Kanitsar and Rainer Wegenkittl and Dominik Fleischmann
               and Eduard Gr\"{o}ller",
  year =       "2003",
  abstract =   "Traditional volume visualization techniques may provide
               incomplete clinical information needed for many applications
               in medical visualization. Especially in the area of vascular
               visualization important features such as the patent lumen of
               a diseased vessel segment may not be visible. Curved Planar
               Reformation (CPR) has proven to be an acceptable practical
               solution. Existing CPR techniques, however, still have
               diagnostically relevant limitations. In this paper we
               introduce two advanced methods for efficient vessel
               visualization, based on the concept of CPR. Both methods
               benefit from relaxation of spatial coherence in favor of
               improved feature perception. We present a new technique to
               visualize the interior of a vessel in a single image. A
               vessel is re-sampled along a spiral around the vessel
               central axis. The helical spiral depicts the vessel volume.
               Furthermore, a method to display an entire vascular tree
               without mutually occluding vessels is presented. Minimal
               rotations around the branching points of a vessel tree
               eliminate occlusions. For each viewing                 
               direction the entire vessel structure is visible.",
  month =      may,
  number =     "TR-186-2-03-08",
  address =    "Favoritenstrasse 9-11/E193-02, A-1040 Vienna, Austria",
  institution = "Institute of Computer Graphics and Algorithms, Vienna
               University of Technology ",
  note =       "human contact: technical-report@cg.tuwien.ac.at",
  keywords =   "curved planar reformation, vessel analysis, computed
               tomography angiography",
  URL =        "https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/2003/Kanitsar-2003-ADV/",
}