The visible man: three-dimensional interactive musculoskeletal anatomic atlas of the lower extremity.
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.
Kang
H S
HS
Department of Radiology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Chongno-Gu, Korea.
Kim
B H
BH
Ryu
J W
JW
Hong
S H
SH
Chung
H W
HW
Cho
S Y
SY
Kim
Y H
YH
Hwang
S I
SI
Jeong
D K
DK
Shin
Y G
YG
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*