ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
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2.1 Introduction: Two-Dimensional Medical Imaging Two-dimensional (2-D) x-ray imaging has been the basis for forming images of the human anatomy since the discovery of x-rays at the end of the nineteenth century. Because 2-D x-ray imaging provides a projection of the three-dimensional (3-D) anatomy onto a 2-D image plane, information of an organ or pathology necessary for diagnosis or treatment is often obscured by overlying structures. Computed tomography (CT), developed in the early 1970s, revolutionized diagnostic radiology by providing physicians with 3-D images of anatomical structures, reconstructed from a set of contiguous tomographic 2-D images. The development of 3-D imaging techniques has continued with the development of 3-D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and multislice and cone beam CT imaging. These imaging modalities have stimulated the development of a wide variety of clinical applications using advanced 3-D image analysis and visualization techniques.
