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Abstract

In recent years, medical diagnosis using a variety of scanning modalities has become quasi-universal and has brought about the need for computer analysis of digital scans.

Members of the Spatial Reasoning research group have developed image processing software for CT (tomography) scan data. The program partitions (segments) images into regions with similar properties. These images are then analysed further so that particular features (such as bones, organs or blood vessels) can be segmented out. The team's research continues to deal with each of these two separate meanings of medical image segmentation.

The existing software is written in C++ and features carefully-crafted and well-documented data structures and algorithms for image manipulation.

In certain areas of surgery (e.g. orthopaedic surgery involving hip and knee joint) the magnetic resonance scanning modality (MRI) is preferred, both because of its safety (no radiation involved) and because of its increased visualisation potential.

This project is about converting MRI scan data into a format that can become compatible with existing segmentation algorithms. The data input would need to be integrated into the group's analysis software in order then to carry out 3D reconstructions and other measurements.

This project is co-supervised by Professor David Murray MA, MD, FRCS (Orth), Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS), and by Mr Hemant Pandit MBBS, MS (Orth), DNB (Orth), FRCS (Orth), DPhil (Oxon)Orthopaedic Surgeon / Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Oxford Orthopaedic Engineering Centre (OOEC), NDORMS.