Development of a tridimensional visualization and model reconstruction system based on computed tomographic data

Medical image processing constitutes an important research area of the biomedical engineering since it provides accurate human body information for 3D visualization and analysis, diagnostic, surgical treatment planning, surgical training, prosthesis and implant design, wafer and surgical guides design. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have had a great impact in the medicine since they can represent complex three dimensional (3D) anomalities or deformities. In this paper, the development of a system for tridimensional visualization and model reconstruction based on CT data is presented. The aim is to provide a system capable to assist the design process of prosthesis, implants and surgical guides by reconstructing anatomical 3D models which can be exported to any CAD program or computer aided surgery (CAS) system. A complete description of the proposed system is presented. The new system is able to visualize and reconstruct bone and/or soft tissues. Three types of renders are used: one for 3D visualization based on three planes, other for 3D surface reconstruction based on the well known marching cubes algorithm, and the other for 3D volume visualization based on the ray-casting algorithm. The functionality and performance of the system are evaluated by means of four case studies. The results have proved the capability of the system to visualize and reconstruct anatomical 3D models from medical images. Copyright © 2011 by ASME.

VIVO