Combining Direct 3D Volume Rendering and Magnetic Particle Imaging to Advance Radiation-Free Real-Time 3D Guidance of Vascular Interventions.

Purpose: Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a novel tomographic radiation-free imaging technique that combines high spatial resolution and real-time capabilities, making it a promising tool to guide vascular interventions. Immediate availability of 3D image data is a major advantage over the presently used digital subtraction angiography (DSA), but new methods for real-time image analysis and visualization are also required to take full advantage of the MPI properties. This laboratory study illustrates respective techniques by means of three different patient-specific 3D vascular flow models.