For Additional Information:
Dr. Timothy Newman, (205) 890-6619
Phillip Gentry, (205) 890-6414
[email protected]
Software lets doctors 'see' innards in 3-D
Imagine your doctor pinpointing a cancerous tumor deep inside your
kidney, then measuring its size as she plans how best to remove it. Now
imagine your doctor doing all of that from the keyboard of a computer,
before the first incision is made.
Image-guided software developed by Dr. Timothy S. Newman, an assistant
professor of computer science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville,
will help doctors better diagnose cancer and plan surgery by allowing the
more effective use of information collected from computerized axial
tomography (CAT) scanned images.
Newman, who is collaborating on the reseach with the National Institutes
for Health, is concentrating on treatment planning for one type of renal
cancer. The research involves CAT, a three-dimensional x-ray that
highlights specific areas of concentration, as it blurs out other nearby
areas.
"Visualization guidance gives doctors a roadmap to tumors," Newman said.
The 3-D images are interpreted using a supercomputer. The supercomputer
uses a technique called pipelining to efficiently process the images in a
series of overlapping stages.
Doctors now depend on the traditional method of viewing CAT images, which
involves studying the slices, Newman said. Surgeons look at the slices as
a series of images rather than a volume. He noted that medical personnel
seldom engage in any inspection of true 3-D volumetric visualization,
which accurately measures the size of tumors.
"One of our specific goals is the accurate and timely detection and
removal of tumerous tissue," Newman said. "With the volumetric
visualization process, doctors will be able to get information from a
complex data display and use it more effectively."
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