A new method for representing the human anatomy.

In current practice, anatomical atlases are based on a collection of planar images presented in a book or, recently, stored on digital media. We present a new method for generating interactive true three-dimensional (3D) anatomical atlases based on a volume model derived from MRI and CT. The model has a two layer structure. The lower level is a volume model with a set of semantic attributes connected to each voxel. The semantic attributes are assigned by an anatomist using a volume editor. The upper level is a set of relations between these attributes. Interactive visualization tools such as multiple surface display, transparent rendering, and cutting are provided. It is shown that the combination of this data structure with advanced volume visualization tools provides the "look and feel" of real dissection. First tests show that the atlas system cannot only be used successfully for anatomy teaching, but also as a reference for radiologists or surgeons. As a replacement of classical atlases, however, the spatial resolution has still to be improved.