3D and Image Processing

Vital Images, Inc. used SCAR as the launching pad for its ViTALconnect medical diagnostic software tool that allows physicians to use PCs or notebook computers to access 2D, 3D and 4D advanced visualization from a web-enabled thin-client server.

With ViTALconnect, users can process, analyze, review and distribute multi-dimensional medical images securely over the Internet. ViTALconnect, which grew out of Vital Images acquisition earlier this year of HInnovation , can analyze datasets from computed tomography, magnetic resonance, positron emission tomography scanners and other modalities and enable users to manipulate, measure, rotate and segment images. An advanced vessel analysis option aids clinicians in the study of blood vessel and circulatory anatomy and in planning and monitoring vascular therapies. Cardiac images composed of multiple phases can be viewed over time in 4D, creating a beating heart in time-series coronary studies. ViTALconnect software also can fuse images from two different scanning modalities at the same time. A collaboration mode enables multiple physicians to confer while interacting with the same images in real time.



R2 Technology debuted a new DigitalNow product for mammography CAD that enables facilities to digitize prior studies to review on softcopy via PACS for comparison with digital full-field digital mammography images. The product is expected to be available in early July. The company estimated that 65 percent of digital mammograms are currently read off film.

R2 also said its 5.2 algorithm for the ImageChecker will be rolled out next week, which includes two operating points that allow for adjustment for higher sensitivity and marks and lower sensitivity and marks, according to physician preference.



Cedara Software Corp. at SCAR highlighted new Tissue Type Segmentation software that provides fully automatic and semi-automatic identification of tissue structures and organs for 2D and 3D MRI and CT data. The software can be used to build a variety of clinical applications that require fast, reliable automated analysis of anatomical structures, including cardiovascular structures.



Radin showed the new Radin 3.0, web-based image processing software that transmits medical imaging data between radiology, clinical department and external practices. The company also highlighted expanded features of the Radin viewer, including MIP/MPR functionality.



TeraRecon, Inc. and radiologists from the University of Maryland partnered at SCAR for a live evaluation of workflow-based 3D imaging designed to gauge the effectiveness of how physicians learn to navigate 3D datasets after watching a brief training video for TeraRecon's AquariusNET system for enterprise-wide, workflow-based 3D.

TeraRecon also highlighted its new AquariusGate software, which enables efficient utilization of limited bandwidth when transferring large medical imaging datasets across a network. AquariusGate receives images from existing medical imaging devices using the standard DICOM protocol, and then applies configurable and rules-based lossy or lossless compression before routing the datasets to a receiving station which reconstitutes the images and relays them to the receiving device using the standard DICOM protocol. AquariusGate can be used to connect existing devices efficiently across wide area networks without the need for customized or proprietary interface solutions.

TeraRecon also rolled out its Tellus UF-750XT portable ultrasound system, which TeraRecon co-developed with Fukuda Denshi Co. Ltd. The device weighs 27 pounds (resembling an electronic typewriter) and offers features for tissue harmonics, skeletal, ob/gyn and vascular applications. The companies plan to release a 3D software upgrade option powered by TeraRecon's volume rendering technology in the third quarter.



3D imaging software firm Voxar offered several new advances for its Voxar 3D software for the integration of 3D visualization into a PACS workstation.

The enhancements include the ability to seamlessly integrate Voxar 3D into the PACS workstation; increased control over Voxar 3D's user-interface; and the capability to alter the behavior and workflow of Voxar 3D to mirror that of the PACS workstation. Voxar integrations allow the user to launch Voxar 3D directly within the PACS workstation, accessing MPR and 3D tools with a single mouse click.

In addition, Voxar Colonscreen has been incorporated into Voxar's site license program, which currently gives users access to Voxar 3D with or without a PACS. Users will be able to read CT colonography exams from any location.

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