Endoscopy has become a common diagnostic and surgical technique
for many medical applications. Endoscopes are thin tubular
fiber-optic devices that permit the examination of hollow anatomical
regions. The physician inserts the endoscope via a small incision
and then guides the device through the regions of interest. With
an endoscope, a physician can "walk" through the body
in much the same way a miner walks through a mine shaft. While
endoscopy permits one to probe complex structures, it has the
disadvantages of being prone to surgical errors and not permitting
wide anatomical exploration.
Currently, we are working on a project in
which we aim to merge the concepts of 3D imaging and endoscopy
synergistically. We have devised PC and Sun based virtual endoscopic
systems for noninvasive analysis and visualization of pulmonary and
coronary structures. A high-resolution 3D image volume of the
relevant anatomy acts as the input to the system. The user then
'navigates' through the anatomy using the 3D image as a virtual
environment. The interactive systems feature many visualization and
quantitation tools.
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