A programmable networked processing node for 3D brain vessels reconstruction

Real-time 3D imaging represents a developing trend in medical imaging. However, most of the 3D medical imaging algorithms are computationally intensive. In this paper, a programmable networked node for 3D brain vessels reconstruction is proposed. Starting from 2D PC-MRA (Phase-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Angiography) sequences, the node is able to generate the 3D brain vasculature using the MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection) algorithm. The node has been prototyped on the Celoxica RC203E board, equipped with a Virtex II FPGA, to get the advantages of an hardware implementation, reaching a better throughput with respect to analogous software implementations. Its generality and programmable capabilities make the proposed node easy to be reprogrammed and customized with different medical imaging algorithms. © 2011 IEEE.