Model-based compression for 3D medical images stored in the DICOM format.

Many medical examinations involve acquisition of a large series of slice images for 3D reconstruction of the organ of interest. With the paperless hospital concept and telemedicine, there is very heavy utilization of limited electronic storage and transmission bandwidth. This paper proposes model-based compression to reduce the load on such resources, as well as aid diagnosis through the 3D reconstruction of the structures of interest, for images acquired by various modalities, such as MRI, Ultrasound, CT, PET etc. and stored in the DICOM file format. An example implementation for the biliary track in MRCP images is illustrated in the paper. Significant compression gains may be derived from the proposed method, and a suitable mixture of the models and raw images would enhance the patient medical history archives as the models may be stored in the DICOM file format used in most medical archiving systems.