Three-dimensional vascular imaging and three-dimensional color power angiography imaging

Abstract

From the very early days of bistable ultrasound imaging, it has been the goal of clinicians and engineers to develop techniques for the three-dimensional (3D) imaging of structures and systems within the body. As early as 1956, Howry et al. 1 proposed 'stereoscopic' viewing of body structures. Since that time a number of schemes to accomplish 3D imaging have been attempted to realize the potential value of rendering volumetric data, 2-4 but until very recently these have met with limited success in their clinical application.5-9 Technical limitations of image orientation, low grayscale dynamic range, data storage, and data processing time have affected the usefulness of 3D image reconstruction in direct clinical applications. These early efforts all required extensive off-line, non-realtime processing of image data, often with significant operator interaction, and provided reconstructions with reduced resolution and/or inadequate image registration. Despite these constraints, 3D imaging with off-line processing of grayscale image data has been applied in a wide variety of clinical situations, including fetal imaging, breast ultrasound, urology, ophthalmology, hepatobiliary ultrasound, and echocardiography.10-17 © 2007 Springer-Verlag London Limited.