Real 3D is a stereoscopic projection technology, which is currently the most widely used technology. Many imaging technologies have been applied such as X-ray, magnetic resonance (MR), computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US), but 3D imaging technology is now the center of attention in medical research and clinical practice. It provides quality information & images to the end user and in this way they get timely spatial information of the scanned area which is very helpful for intra-operative ultrasound examinations. In recent years, ultrasounds gained greater attention in clinical practices because of its interactive nature and low radiation.
Conduction Stages of 3D Ultrasound:
Generally 3D Ultrasounds are conducted in three stages.
- Acquisition; In this stage B scans are composed with relative position using conventional 2D probes, or directly attain 3D images using dedicated 3D probes.
- Reconstruction; the reconstruction refers to insert the collected 2D images into a predefined regular volume grid.
- Visualization; the visualization aims to build a voxel array in a definite manner such as volume rendering.
Collecting data and volume reconstruction often takes time before visualizing, so clinicians have to wait for the accurate 3D image.
Image Generation and Rendering:
Rendering a 3D scene for display in the conventional 2D form from vertex, two competing applications (DirectX and OpenGL) interfaces, resulting in a 2D projection view of a 3D scene. This rendering is important in obtaining naturally perceivable 3D volumetric images. The reconstruction of a volumetric scenes requires 2D slices of the 3D scene. This can be obtained by several methods.
To provide a systematic understanding of the relevant technology in real time, many investigators made their efforts to develop real time ultrasound systems. Various efforts with the dedicated 3D probe or traditional 2D probe to reconstruct and render a volume during data acquisition are now accessible.
Attaining 3D real time images without distortion is essential for clinical diagnosis. So for data acquisition the objectives are twofold;
- To acquire relative locations and orientations of the tomographic images accurately, this will ensure the 3D reconstruction without errors.
- Second to capture the 3D visualization of dynamic structures in real time.
For this purpose four 3D US data acquisition techniques are array transducers, mechanical 3D probes, mechanical localizers and freehand scanners.
The speed and accuracy of volume reconstruction are essential for real-time 3D imaging. The real time reconstruction algorithms of 3D voxel are classified into three types, which are based on the method of implementation.
- Voxel-Based method (VBMs)
- Pixel-Based method (PBMs)
- Function-Based methods (FBMs)
In these types, the 3D voxel grid is shown as 2D grid marking the center of the voxel and images illustrated as lines.
The reconstruction speed and quality have a great impact on the implementation of real time visualization. There are three approaches for 3D visualization;
- Slice projection
- Surface rendering
- Volume rendering
Nowadays, this amazing 3D imaging technology is being used in everyday clinical practice for fast and accurate diagnosis.
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