Publication: Virtual reality for hepatocellular carcinoma pre-surgical planning_
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Date
2010-04-01
Authors
Fong, Jian Siong
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Abstract
Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the hepatocyte, which develops in patients with risk factors such as viral hepatitis, metabolic liver disease, and cirrhosis due to alcohol abuse. Studies done by researchers have shown that pre-surgical planning tools aid surgeons in planning surgery procedures for HCC as well as increasing post-surgery survival rate. Previously, pre-surgical planning was done based on medical images acquired using medical imaging devices such as Computed Tomography (CT), X-Ray, Ultrasound, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Surgeons will need to examine the medical images carefully, and picturing a 3D liver model using imagination. This process is very time consuming, and anatomical variations of tumours might lead to suboptimal treatment strategy decision. This project focuses on the application of virtual reality technology in HCC pre-surgical planning. One of many deployments of virtual reality in pre-surgical planning is to display a virtual 3D liver model which resembles patient’s liver. The process starts by reading segmented 2D axial slices of patient’s liver as input and forms a three dimensional dataset. Surface extraction technique (Marching Cubes algorithm) is performed to extract the isosurface of the dataset. The product of surface extraction is a virtual 3D mesh, which is consisted of a group of points recorded in their respective three dimensional coordinates. These points are mapped to graphic primitives by graphic renderer, together with information such as colours, light sources, and camera views. Interaction control with the 3D model is done by using computer hardware interface devices such as mouse, keyboard, joystick or pen input devices. These devices can be used to zoom, rotate, and control the transparency of the virtual 3D liver model to inspect any abnormal enlargement or lump on patient’s liver, as well as the location of the malignancy.