3-D display of magnetic resonance images by use of multiplex holography

In this paper, we study the method of generating a true 3-D image from MRI multiple slices by using the multiplex holography. The purpose in our method is to display effectively the density information distributed in the 3-D space. For making a multiplex hologram any projected image in each direction from multiple slices should be computed. We study computer processing for producing images of good quality from the viewpoint of displaying the density distribution in the 3-D space clearly and discriminating lesions from normal tissues. The following two kinds of processing are studied. (1) Projection: To generate fastly projections of good quality, the following subjects are examined. 1. Computation method of density values on a projected image from an original slice image. 2. Methods for projection of multiple slices. 3. Interpolation of slices between original neighbouring slices. 4. Composition of several sets of multiple slices in different directions. (2) Image enahancement: To enhance depth feeling of slices and density values in lesions, the following methods are studied. 1. Enhancement of depth feeling by a weighted sum of slices. 2. Slice enhancement by multiplying the particular slices by weights. 3. Lesion enhancement by thresholding. 4. Lesion enhancement by operations between images with different imaging parameters. The following are the results ; projected images of the quality good enough for constructing a multiplex hologram can be obtained by the simple method proposed in this paper, using four sets of multiple slices in four different directions. The enhancement technique mentioned above was proved to be effective for improving the understandability of 3-D information. (author)