Dual-Energy CT makes it possible to separate contributions of different X-ray attenuation processes or materials in the CT image. Thereby, standard Dual-Energy tissue classification techniques perform a so called material analysis or decomposition. The resulting material maps can then be used to perform explicit segmentation of anatomical structures such as osseous tissue in case of bone removal. As a drawback, information about tissue classes included in the scan must be known beforehand in order to choose the appropriate material analysis algorithms. We propose direct volume rendering with bidimensional transfer functions as a tool for interactive and intuitive exploration of Dual-Energy scans. Thereby, adequate visualization of the Dual-Energy histogram provides the basis for easily identifying different tissue classes. Transfer functions are interactively adjusted over the Dual-Energy histogram where the x- and y-axis correspond to the 80 kV and 140kV intensities respectively. GPU implementation allows precise fine-tuning of transfer functions with real time feedback in the resulting visualization. Additionally, per fragment filtering and post interpolative Dual-Energy tissue classification are provided. Moreover, interactive histogram exploration makes it possible to create adequate Dual-Energy visualizations without pre-processing or previous knowledge about existing tissue classes.

Date Published: 17 March 2008
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6918, Medical Imaging 2008: Visualization, Image-Guided Procedures, and Modeling, 69182Z (17 March 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.769421

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6918:
Medical Imaging 2008: Visualization, Image-Guided Procedures, and Modeling
Michael I. Miga; Kevin Robert Cleary, Editor(s)