Abstract
Visualization of 3-D volume data through maximum intensity projections (MIP) requires isotropic voxels for generation of undistorted projected images. Unfortunately, due to the inherent scanning geometry, X-ray computed tomographic (CT) images are mostly axial images with submillimeter pixel resolution, with the slice spacing on the order of half to one centimeter. These axial images must be interpolated across the slices prior to the projection operation. The linear interpolation, due to the inherent noise in the data, generates MIP images with noise whose variance varies quadratically along the z-axis. Therefore, such MIP images often suffer from horizontal streaking artifacts, exactly at the position of the original slices (e.g., in coronal and sagittal MIPs). We propose a different interpolation technique based on a digital finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The proposed technique flattens the change in noise variances across the z-axis and results in either elimination or a reduction of horizontal streaking artifacts in coronal and sagittal views.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
J. K. Udupa and G. T. Herman (eds.): 3-D Imaging in Medicine. CRC, Boca Raton (1991)
S. M. Goldwasser, R. A. Reynolds, D. A. Talton, and E. S. Walsh, “Techniques for the rapid display and manipulation of 3-D biomedical data,” Comput, Med. Imag., Graph, Vol. 12(1), (1988) 1–24
J. K. Udupa and R. J. Goncalves, “Imaging transforms for visualizing surfaces and volumes,” J. Digital Imag.,V. 6(4), (1993) 213–236
D. G. Brown and S. J. Riederer, “Contrast-to noise ratios in maximum intensity projection images,” Magnetic Reson, Med., Vol. 23 (1992) 130–137
Y. Sun and D. L. Parker, “Performance analysis of maximum intensity projection algorithm for display of MRA Images,” IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., Vol. 18(12), (1999) 1154–1169
S. Schreiner and B. M. Dawant, “The importance of ray pathlengths when measuring objects in maximum intensity projection images,” IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., Vol. 15(4) (1996) 568–579
B. Porat, A Course in Digital Signal Processing. Wiley, New York (1997)
T. M. Lehmann and C. Gönner, “Survey: Interpolation methods in medical image processing,” IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., Vol. 18(11), (1999) 1049–1075
A. Papoulis and S. Pillai, Probability, Random Variables and Stochastic Processes. McGraw-Hill, New York (2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Song, S.MH., Kwon, J. (2002). Interpolation of CT Slices for 3-D Visualization by Maximum Intensity Projections. In: Chen, YC., Chang, LW., Hsu, CT. (eds) Advances in Multimedia Information Processing — PCM 2002. PCM 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2532. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36228-2_132
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36228-2_132
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00262-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36228-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive