A new visualization method for 3D head MRA data - art. no. 691835

In this paper, we propose a new visualization method for head MRA data which supports the user to easily determine the positioning of MPR images and/or MIP images based on the blood vessel network structure (the anatomic location of blood vessels). This visualization method has following features: (a) the blood vessel (cerebral artery) network structure in 3D head MRA data is portrayed the 3D line structure; (b) the MPR or MIP images are combined with the blood vessel network structure and displayed in a 3D visualization space; (c) the positioning of MPR or MIP is decided based on the anatomic location of blood vessels; (d) The image processing and drawing can be operated at real-time without a special hardware accelerator. As a result, we believe that our method is available to position MPR images or MIP images related to the blood vessel network structure. Moreover, we think that the user using this method can obtain the 3D information (position, angle, direction) of both these images and the blood vessel network structure.