COMPUTER-AIDED 3-DIMENSIONAL VISUALIZATION OF ABDOMINAL AORTIC-ANEURYSMS FROM CT IMAGES

A new method for elucidating the process of abdominal aortic aneurysm enlargement is presented herein. First, 3-dimensional (3-D) reconstruc ted images were used to precisely evaluate the size of an aneurysm, af ter which reconstruction and a volume analysis of images were performe d with a personal computer system using serial computed tomographic fi lms. The evolution of an aneurysm was examined by the detailed reconst ruction, and an estimation of size was achieved by accurately measurin g the figure reconstructed from the angle perpendicular to the axis of the contour. In quantifying the enlargement of an aneurysm, an exact evaluation of volume changes and morphological changes can be performe d using the 3-D reconstruction method from the film series obtained at follow-up studies. The volume analysis proved especially useful for e valuating the axial expansion of aneurysms with stable maximum diamete rs.