van Pelt, R., Bescós, J. O., Breeuwer, M., Clough, R., Gröller, E., ter Haar Romeny, B., & Vilanova, A. (2011). Interactive Virtual Probing of 4D MRI Blood-Flow. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 17(12), 2153–2162. https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2011.215
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
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ISSN:
1077-2626
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Date (published):
3-Nov-2011
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Number of Pages:
10
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Publisher:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
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Peer reviewed:
Yes
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Keywords:
Software; Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design; Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition; Signal Processing
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Abstract:
Better understanding of hemodynamics conceivably leads to improved diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, an elaborate analysis of the blood-flow in heart and thoracic arteries is essential. Contemporary MRI techniques enable acquisition of quantitative time-resolved flow information, resulting in 4D velocity fields that capture the blood-flow behavior. Visual exploration of these fields provides comprehensive insight into the unsteady blood-flow behavior, and precedes a quantitative analysis of additional blood-flow parameters. The complete inspection requires accurate segmentation of anatomical structures, encompassing a time-consuming and hard-to-automate process, especially for malformed morphologies. We present a way to avoid the laborious segmentation process in case of qualitative inspection, by introducing an interactive virtual probe. This probe is positioned semi-automatically within the blood-flow field, and serves as a navigational object for visual exploration. The difficult task of determining position and orientation along the view-direction is automated by a fitting approach, aligning the probe with the orientations of the velocity field. The aligned probe provides an interactive seeding basis for various flow visualization approaches. We demonstrate illustration-inspired particles, integral lines and integral surfaces, conveying distinct characteristics of the unsteady blood-flow. Lastly, we present the results of an evaluation with domain experts, valuing the practical use of our probe and flow visualization techniques.
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Research Areas:
Visual Computing and Human-Centered Technology: 100%