Fast analysis of intracranical aneurysms based on interactive direct volume rendering and CTA

The diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms and the planning of related interventions is effectively assisted by spiral CT-angiography and interactive direct volume rendering. Based on 3D texture mapping, we suggest a hardware accelerated approach which provides fast and meaningful visualization without time-consuming pre-processing. Interactive tools provide reliable measurement of distance and volume allowing to calculate the size of vessels and aneurysms directly within the 3D viewer. Thereby, the expensive material required for coiling procedures is estimated more precisely. Interactively calculated shaded isosurfaces, presented in [1] were evaluated in respect of enhanced perception of depth. Based on the integration into OpenInventor, global overview and simultaneous detail information is provided by communicating windows allowing for intuitive and user-guided navigation. Due to an average of 15–20 minutes required for the complete medical analysis, our approach is expected to be useful for clinical routine. Additional registration and simultaneous visualization of MR and CT-angiography gives further anatomical orientation. Several examples demonstrate the potential of our approach.