Medical Images: Formation, Handling and Evaluation

Medical imaging is a very important area in diagnostic (andincreasingly therapeutic) medicine. Many new techniques arebeing developed or extended which depend on digital methods. Although conventional x-radiographs still comprise the bulkof the medical images acquired in a hospital, digitalmethods such as computerized tomography and magneticresonance imaging are now often claimed to have a moresignificant clinical impact. This book is concerned with three aspects of such digitalimages: their formation, or how they can be acquired; theirhandling, or how they may be manipulated to increase theirclinical value; and their evaluation, or how their impactand value may be assessed. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 comprises aseries of reviews in the general subject area written byauthorities in the field. Part 2 includes papers ontheoretical aspects: 3D images, reconstruction, perception,and image processing. Part 3includes papers on applicationsin nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance, andradiology.