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| Year : 2007 | Volume
: 61
| Issue : 4 | Page : 220 |
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Biomedical imaging: The burgeoning axes
Nishith K Singh
Dept. of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Nishith K Singh
Dept. of Internal Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
India
How to cite this article:
Singh NK. Biomedical imaging: The burgeoning axes. Indian J Med Sci 2007;61:220 |
To a futurist's surprise, the scope of the existing radio-imaging empire is much beyond the multitude 3D. 4D (spatiotemporal, space and time data) CT techniques are being developed, which may potentially aid in high-precision radiotherapy by taking respiration-induced tumor motion into account.[1][2] These allow dynamic real-time visualization of an organ movement in time, by fusing space and time (4D) data (multimodality fusion).
And in the startling 5D approach,[2] the time dimension is further split (e.g., gating with phases of cardiac cycle in addition to respiratory movements) or a functional study is added to space (3D) and time (4D) axes (e.g., PET, along with space and time). The latter provides opportunities for physiologic studies. Also, an ablative procedure on heart can be aided by this technology. As a 3D image is captured, through time (4D), the mapping of electrophysiology (colorful action potential progression front as the fifth dimension) on the cardiac walls allows specific targeting of a focal arrhythmia. The future is bright and a real-time multisensory interactive online live visualization of a patient's interior during a procedure does not seem very far.
So, even while a theorist as gifted as Stephen Hawking expressed his constitutional subjective inability to comprehend dimensions as traditional as 3D,[3] the entire radio-imaging order is inflicted with the fortunate plague of a reform in dimensions.
| ¤ References | |  |
| 1. | Jaffray D, Kupelian P, Djemil T, Macklis RM. Review of image-guided radiation therapy. Exp Rev Anticancer Ther 2007;7:89-103.  [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
| 2. | Defrise M, Gullberg GT. Image reconstruction. Phys Med Biol 2006;51:R139-54. [PUBMED] [FULLTEXT] |
| 3. | Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. Bantam Books; 1988. |
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