Three-dimensional display of femoral head cartilage thickness maps from MR images

This paper reports on the development of methods for three-dimensional display and analysis of the articular cartilage of the hip from MR images. Cadaveric femoral head specimens were images with three-dimensional GRASS MR imaging. Data were analyzed on a SUN workstation with original software, the ANALYZE package from Richard Robb's Biomedical Research Group at the Mayo Clinic, and SUN's Voxvu program. The articular cartilage was isolated by manually segmenting images. An original computer ray tracing method measured the cartilage thickness radially and produced movies of a rotating femoral head, displaying brightness proportional to cartilage thickness