title: Towards omni-tomography--grand fusion of multiple modalities for simultaneous interior tomography.
abstract: We recently elevated interior tomography from its origin in computed tomography (CT) to a general tomographic principle, and proved its validity for other tomographic modalities including SPECT, MRI, and others. Here we propose "omni-tomography", a novel concept for the grand fusion of multiple tomographic modalities for simultaneous data acquisition in a region of interest (ROI). Omni-tomography can be instrumental when physiological processes under investigation are multi-dimensional, multi-scale, multi-temporal and multi-parametric. Both preclinical and clinical studies now depend on in vivo tomography, often requiring separate evaluations by different imaging modalities. Over the past decade, two approaches have been used for multimodality fusion: Software based image registration and hybrid scanners such as PET-CT, PET-MRI, and SPECT-CT among others. While there are intrinsic limitations with both approaches, the main obstacle to the seamless fusion of multiple imaging modalities has been the bulkiness of each individual imager and the conflict of their physical (especially spatial) requirements. To address this challenge, omni-tomography is now unveiled as an emerging direction for biomedical imaging and systems biomedicine.
authors: Biomedical Imaging Division, VT-WFU School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Blacksburg, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America. ge-wang@ieee.org
authors: Ge
authors: G
authors: Wang
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Gao
authors: Victor
authors: V
authors: Weir
authors: Hengyong
authors: H
authors: Yu
authors: Wenxiang
authors: W
authors: Cong
authors: Xiaochen
authors: X
authors: Xu
authors: Haiou
authors: H
authors: Shen
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Bennett
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Furth
authors: Yue
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Vannier
mesh_terms: D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*