Three-dimensional display of cardiac structures using reconstructed magnetic resonance imaging

It is sometimes difficult to understand the three-dimensional (3D) relationship of cardiac and mediastinal structures despite advances in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques. We present a low-cost system for 3D reconstruction of the major mediastinal structures by processing the MR imaging data on a NeXT workstation. MR images of multisection, multiphase, spin-echo techniques stored in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) data base were used for the reconstruction. The computer program obtained the contours of the multiple components of the mediastinal structures by the combination of automatic and manual procedure. The bundled software of a 3D kit was used for surface rendering of hidden surface removal, shading of the visible parts of the surfaces, perspective transformation, and motion parallax by rotation of the surfaces. 3D reconstruction was performed in 15 patients with cardiac diseases, and the 3D-reconstructed images were compared with the plain chest x rays of the patients. The 3D presentation clearly showed the complex anatomy of cardiovascular diseases and helped elucidate the misconceptions in the interpretation of the plain chest x rays. Our 3D images are used for education and should be viewed by medical students and beginners in radiology at an individual pace with plain chest radiographs, MR images, and legends. Although applied to the heart and the great vessels in this report, this system is also applicable to other structures.