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Four-Dimensional Biomedical Imaging
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16703 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1989 |
1,864 Words |
| Author
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Calvin Pierce
Calvin Pierce is a free-lance writer living in the Washington,
D.C., area. |
Computer technology has provided medicine with new imaging tools that allow physicians to peer into the inner workings of the body to search for signs of disease. X-ray computer tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, ultrasound, and other imaging techniques provide valuable information about anatomic structures and physiologic states.
But it is no simple matter to convert the wealth of data produced by these tools into meaningful images that can be used in diagnosing and treating disease. In fact, the ability of biomedical imaging technology to generate information has far outstripped the capacity of computers to process and interpret the data, says Richard A. Robb, director of the Mayo Clinic's Biotechnology Computer Resource in Rochester, Minnesota. "Addressing that problem is what our resource is about," he says.
Robb, professor of biophysics at the Mayo Clinic, has worked for 15 years to help push forward the frontiers of biomedical imaging. He and his associates have developed sophisticated computer systems for displaying three-dimensional (3-D) images that researchers and physicians can readily manipulate and measure. By using a sequence of 3-D displays the Mayo Clinic imaging system can produce what Robb calls "four-dimensional" (4-D) moving images of such things as a beating heart, lungs filling with air, or a skull being rotated in space. He defines the fourth dimension in imaging, which is characterized by movement, as "sets of 3-D images related through time." This technology is opening up powerful new ways to visualize and measure the human body in health and disease.
As a foundation for its
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