Dear Advanced Visualization Insider,
Assessing airway disease has generally been a time-consuming and clumsy process that involves manually comparing follow-up scans with priors. But executives with start-up company 4Dx hope to change all of that with an advanced visualization technique that turns a few quick fluoroscopy acquisitions into detailed functional maps and movies of the airways.
In this issue's Insider Exclusive, Dr. Andreas Fouras from 4Dx explains how patients with lung diseases from asthma to cystic fibrosis can be evaluated quickly and quantitatively in a low-dose exam that can be performed easily and accurately. For the rest of the story, click here.
In other news, 3D printing has emerged as a powerful technique to guide surgeons, train medical students, and help patients too. But it can be expensive, and there's most definitely a learning curve involved. In our latest installment of an occasional series of 3D printing success stories, we profile a group from China that has successfully implemented a 3D printing lab using low-cost open-source software and a basic 3D printer. Learn how you can do it, too, by clicking here.
In CT lung cancer screening, researchers are using reconstruction techniques and computer-aided detection (CAD) to maximize the efficiency of ultralow-dose protocols. One surprise along the way was the strength of an old-school tool: maximum intensity projections (MIPs). Using MIPs and CAD on different groups actually delivered equivalent sensitivity for detecting malignancy, wrote the authors of a multinational study. A second surprise was that all CAD schemes are not alike.
Finally, researchers in South Africa used advanced imaging techniques to definitively diagnose cancer in a 1.7-million-year-old. Too late to save the hominin for sure, but the implications for modern medicine are obvious. Get the rest of the story here.
Be sure to scroll through the links below for all the news about 3D, CAD, 3D printing, and other advanced imaging techniques, right here in your Advanced Visualization Community.
