ABSTRACT
It is a fact that medical images are increasingly acquired in digital format. Themajor imagingmodalities include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultra sonography (US), positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), nuclear medicine (NM), digital subtraction angiography (DSA), and digital flurography (DF). All these techniques have made the view of cross-sections of the human body available, permitted to navigate inside it and to design novel minimally invasive techniques to investigate many pathologies. The numeric representation enables new functionalities for both data archiving and processing that improve health care. The exploitation of image processing techniques in the field of medical imaging represented a breakthrough allowing to manipulate the visual diagnostic information in a novel perspective. Image analysis and rendering are among the many examples. Feature extraction and pattern recognition are the basis for the automatic identification and classification of different lesions (like melanomas, tumors, stenosis) in view of the definition of automatic systems supporting the formulation of the diagnosis by a human expert. Volume rendering and computer vision techniques permitted the development of computer-assisted surgery, stereotaxis, and many other image-based surgical and radiological operations.
