Aneurysm 3D Visualization Overview

The gold standard for evaluation of aneurysms is angiography. By using a helical technique to obtain a volumetric data set, one adds an extremely useful non-invasive way of evaluating intracerebral vessels to the traditional CT-angiography evaluation. By obtaining a volumetric data set one can gain additional information such as the location of the neck of the aneurysm, its size, its orientation in relation to the parent vessel, and its location in reference to other surrounding vessels.

One can take several different approaches to volume rendering the cerebral vessels. A maximum intensity projection of a cerebral hemisphere can be quickly done in merely a few minutes. The downfall of such an approach is that rotation of the projection causes the bone to eventually obstruct the viewing of the vessels.

If one is interested in a particular artery which is not close to the bone, a window containing that artery can be loaded and rendered within five minutes. This approach works well with the basilar artery. Furthermore, by dimming the bone through a quick segmentation process, one can rotate the vessel projection through any angle without the bone interfering with the visualization. Because the bone is not completly segmented away, one can use the bone as an anatomical landmark to orient oneself.

Last, by segmenting specific vessels one can take a close look at the aneurysm without interference of other vessels when the projection is rotated. This allows one to specifically evaluate important factors such as, whether or not, there is another artery originating from the aneurysm which might interfere with the surgeons ability to tie off the aneurysm.