title: The visible man: three-dimensional interactive musculoskeletal anatomic atlas of the lower extremity.
abstract: A personal computer-based interactive musculoskeletal anatomic atlas of the lower extremity has been created by using the Visible Human Male data set. A semiautomatic segmentation program was developed by using an intelligent scissors approach and shape-based interpolation, thus considerably reducing the laborious work of the segmentation and labeling process. Manual contour extractions at 3-mm section intervals and shape-based interpolations of intervening sections of the musculoskeletal structures of the lower extremity were performed. For interactive and realistic three-dimensional display, an efficient binary volume rendering method was developed that introduces the concept of shear-warp factorization and applies a newly developed normal calculation technique. Binary volume rendering reconstructs various structures from a series of two-dimensional sections in a few seconds, thus enabling real-time manipulations of the computerized atlas. All of the muscles, tendons, and bones of the lower extremity have been segmented and labeled. The volume-based three-dimensional interactive atlas supports various interactions including rotation, removal, highlighting with artificial colors, arbitrary cutting operation, transparent view, and descriptive knowledge representation. In addition, browsing through the two-dimensional images of transverse, coronal, and sagittal views with labeling and segmentation information is possible.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Chongno-Gu, Korea.
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: H W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Y G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Shin
mesh_terms: D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional; D003196:Computer Graphics; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007866:Leg / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008297:Male; D008488:Medical Illustration; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000033:anatomy & histology*