3D MR imaging in real-time

A system has been developed to produce 'live' 3D volume renderings from an MR scanner. Whereas real-time 2D MR imaging has been demonstrated by several groups, 3D volumes are currently rendered off-line to gain greater understanding of anatomical structures. For example, surgical planning is sometimes performed by viewing 2D images or 3D renderings from previously acquired image data. A disadvantage of this approach is misregistration which could occur if the anatomy changes due to normal muscle contractions or surgical manipulation. The ability to produce volume renderings in real-time and present them in the magnet room could eliminate this problem, and enable or benefit other types of interventional procedures. The system uses the data stream generated by a fast 2D multi-slice pulse sequence to update a volume rendering immediately after a new slice is available. We demonstrate some basic types of user interaction with the rendering during imaging at a rate of up to 20 frames per second.