Combining high-performance computing and networking for advanced 3-D cardiac imaging

The paper deals with the integration of a powerful parallel computer based image analysis and visualization system for cardiology into a hospital information system. Further services are remote access to the hospital Web server through an Internet network. The visualization system includes dynamic three dimensional representation of two types of medical images (e.g., magnetic resonance and nuclear medicine) as well as two images in the same modality (e.g., basal versus stress images). A series of software tools for quantitative image analysis developed for supporting diagnosis of cardiac disease are also available, including automated image segmentation and quantitative time evaluation of left ventricular volumes and related indices during cardiac cycle, myocardial mass, and myocardial perfusion indices. The system has been tested both at a specialized cardiologic center and for remote consultation in diagnosis of cardiac disease by using anatomical and perfusion magnetic resonance images.