Home > Archives > Additional Archives > Nelson, Pretorius   Thomas R. Nelson, Professor Dolores H. Pretorius, Professor Divisions of Physics and Ultrasound Department of Radiology University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California tnelson@ucsd.edu dpretorius@ucsd.edu   Three-dimensional Imaging in Medical Visualization: the Growing Role of Ultrasound Medical visualization is a rapidly evolving field that has benefited from increasingly powerful computational hardware. Advances in computational and materials technology have resulted in dramatic performance increases in computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment with the result that both modalities are routinely capable of producing volumetric data and in some cases 4D data. Ultrasound imaging traditionally has been a "real-time" imaging modality, albeit 2-dimensional. Recent advances in ultrasound technology are enabling a dramatic transition to 3 and 4-dimensional imaging that promises to redefine the field of rapid, non-invasive imaging. Real-time visualization of complex 3 and 4-dimensional data sets however, poses significant challenges in providing the physician with diagnostically useful views of the patient anatomy and physiology in a readily comprehended manner. Increasingly, visualization tasks that once required supercomputer performance have migrated to the desktop greatly assisting this process and having an important impact on medical visualization and diagnosis. My talk will focus on advances occurring in 3-dimensional ultrasound imaging. This rapidly developing area of visualization plays an increasing role in medical diagnosis. Key to current and future success will be visualization approaches to convey complex information to the patient and physician in a readily understood fashion. Clinical areas of application and ongoing research developments demonstrating this exciting area will reviewed. Images and animations related to this work can be found at the website: http://3dultrasound.ucsd.edu.
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