Abhir Bhalerao and Paul Summers, Angiotool: A Tool for Interactive Visualization of MRI Vector and Tensor Fields (May 30, 2001).
MR imaging is a uniquely powerful tool for non-invasively mapping blood flow and molecular diffusion. These properties have clinical significance but the lack of efficient and intuitive, display and exploration tools for the clinical expert is an obstacle to bringing these images into diagnostic use. We have developed a visualization application (Angiotool) for vector and tensor field data derived from MR phase contrast angiographic and diffusion tensor image (DTI) sequences which augments routine display functions with both quantitative and qualitative exploration features. One of its unique capabilities is to perform interactive tracking of streamlines in both velocity and diffusion tensor data. We describe the GUI model used by Angiotool and illustrate its interactive capability with example results from clinical cases. Central to the design of Angiotool is the ability to interact and navigate through the data in both 2D and 3D displays. Although implementations may differ, we see our interaction model as well suited to new applications of this type.