Three-Dimensional Images and Software for Studying Anatomical Structures in MRIs

Abstract

Medical students and doctors should study the appearance of normal anatomical structures in the magnetic resonance images (MRIs). For this purpose, horizontal, coronal, sagittal MRIs of a healthy entire body and corresponding segmented images were prepared. However, it is inconvenient to select interesting MRIs and segmented images; and it is difficult to understand how stereoscopic anatomical structures appear in the MRIs. Therefore, in this research, a software, on which interesting MRIs can be conveniently displayed among the horizontal, coronal, sagittal MRIs and corresponding segmented images can be displayed together, was composed. And after stacking the segmented images, three-dimensional (3D) image of each anatomical structure was manually reconstructed by surface rendering. Then another software, on which interesting 3D images of anatomical structures can be displayed and rotated, was composed too. These softwares are expected to help medical students and doctors understand normal anatomical structures in the MRIs and read pathological findings in the MRIs of patients.