Liver, spleen and tumor volume measured by personal computer

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Computed tomography (CT) scans are common examinations for patients with chronic liver diseases. To quanti tate the organ or tumor vo lume from the scans and to accomplish the task in an efficient way with the most economic equipment, we developed a system based on a personal compute r. METHODOLOGY: We used color-markers and transparency to sketch the edges of liver, hepatoma, and spleen. Each organ or tumor of interest is marked out by fine-point markers on pieces of transparency. The sketch was scanned int o a digitized image format; on a personal computer (Pentium 133). The calcu lation involves edge-detection, three-dimensional reconstruction, and voxel counting. By using summation-of-the-area and trapezoid approximation techn ique, the voxels of each structure are counted. In this study, we illustrat e the potential application in the management of a hepatic cancer patient. RESULTS: After digitalization, the data size of CT images-is about 1 to 1.5 megabytes. It takes less than 5min to complete volume calculation. CONCLUSIONS: By this method, tumor load before and after chemotherapy can b e estimated easily and accurately. This would be helpful in clinical practi ce.