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In vivo interactive visualization of four-dimensional blood flow patterns

Realtime assessment of volumetric phase contrast MRI

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Abstract

In this paper we give an overview over a series of experiments to visualize and measure flow fields in the human vascular system with respect to their diagnostic capabilities. The experiments utilize a selection of GPU-based sparse and dense flow visualization algorithms to show the diagnostic opportunities for volumetric cardiovascular phase contrast magnetic resonance imaging data sets. Besides classical hardware accelerated particle and line-based approaches, an extensible tublet-based visualization, a four-dimensional volumetric line integral convolution and a new two-dimensional cutting plane tool for three-dimensional velocity data sets have been implemented. To evaluate the results, several hearts of human subjects have been investigated and a flow phantom was built to artificially simulate distinctive flow features. Our results demonstrate that we are able to provide an interactive tool for cardiovascular diagnostics with complementary hardware accelerated visualizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 16a, Graz, Austria

    Bernhard Kainz & Dieter Schmalstieg

  2. Graz University Clinic of Radiology, Auenbruggerplatz 9, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Ursula Reiter

  3. Siemens Healthcare Austria, Straßgangerstraße 315, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Gert Reiter

Authors
  1. Bernhard Kainz
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  2. Ursula Reiter
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  3. Gert Reiter
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  4. Dieter Schmalstieg
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Correspondence to Bernhard Kainz.

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Kainz, B., Reiter, U., Reiter, G. et al. In vivo interactive visualization of four-dimensional blood flow patterns. Vis Comput 25, 853–862 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-009-0315-7

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