IMPROMPTU - A SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATIC 3D MEDICAL IMAGE-ANALYSIS

The utility of three-dimensional (3D) medical imaging is hampered by d ifficulties in extracting anatomical regions and making measurements i n 3D images. Presently, a user is generally forced to use time-consumi ng, subjective, manual methods, such as slice tracing and region paint ing, to define regions of interest. Automatic image-analysis methods c an ameliorate the difficulties of manual methods. This paper describes a graphical user interface (GUI) system for constructing automatic im age-analysis processes for 3D medical-imaging applications. The system , referred to as IMPROMPTU, provides a user-friendly environment for p rototyping, testing and executing complex image-analysis processes. IM PROMPTU can stand alone or it can interact with an existing graphics-b ased 3D medical image-analysis package (VIDA), giving a strong environ ment for 3D image-analysis, consisting of tools for visualization, man ual interaction, and automatic processing. IMPROMPTU links to a large library of 1D, 2D, and 3D image-processing functions, referred to as V IPLIB, but a user can easily link in custom-made functions. 3D applica tions of the system are given for left-ventricular chamber, myocardial , and upper-airway extractions.