Visualization and attributation of vascular structures for diagnostics and therapy planning.

In various medical fields vascular structures have to be examined with usually two-dimensional views which present imaging techniques produce. The interpretation of the data can be supported by 3-dimensional visualization techniques. The further analysis requires often the attributation of the particular functional or anatomical entities. To attribute these interactively we developed two different visualization strategies. In the first one the shape of the structures is modelled with OpenGL achieving very fast response times, most notably during the navigation. The second strategy, the direct rendering of the volume, benefits from the accurate reproduction of the vascular structures. Although the rendering needs much more time, the strategy provides similar response times for the attributation. Thus, the strategies complement one another.