C04520: 4D NURBS-based Cardiac-Torso (NCAT) Phantom
Novelty:
A computer software package to construct realistic and flexible models of the human anatomy and physiology for use in nuclear medicine imaging research.
Value Proposition:
Computerized phantoms involve trade-offs between realism and flexibility, with voxelized phantoms generally having a better spatial resolution and mathematic phantoms allowing for increased flexibility with respect to anatomic variation, patient motion, and resolution. The 4D NCAT Phantom software package uniquely constructs realistic models of the human anatomy and physiology without sacrificing flexibility in modeling anatomical variations and patient motions. Models could provide simulated image data far more consistent with that acquired from actual patients, making it a useful tool for research of high-resolution medical imaging systems and image processing, reconstruction, and compensation methods. Other advantages of the 4D NCAT Phantom software package include:
• Incorporates time into analysis in order to model anatomical motion
• Generates a pixelized phantom at any given resolution
• Creates phantoms that can function as inputs to computational simulations
Technical Details:
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a computer software package to create realistic anatomical models; cardiac and respiratory models have already been developed using this software. In this software, points are first selected on the surfaces of anatomic structures from patient magnetic resonance images. Polygon surfaces are then fit to the points for each time frame and smoothed; and, non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS) are fit to the smooth polygon surfaces in 3 dimensions. Lastly, 4D NURBS surfaces link 3D NURBS surfaces over time to realistically incorporate anatomic motion to phantoms.
Looking for Partners:
To develop & commercialize the technology as a computer software package for use in the development of imaging equipment, image processing software, and image reconstruction software.
Stage of Development:
Field tested prototype
Publications/Associated Cases:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.1999;46(3): 503-6.
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. 2001;48(1):89-97.
