In the absence of satisfactory 3D viewers, most volumetric medical data is currently viewed as stacks of 2D slices. Yet little research has been conducted on stack mode viewing techniques.
In the absence of satisfactory 3D viewers, most volumetric medical data is currently viewed as stacks of 2D slices. Yet little research has been conducted on stack mode viewing techniques.
A recent study from Canada evaluated three interaction techniques for scrolling stack mode displays of volumetric data:
"The paper addresses an underutilized research area of how new technology, in this case the contour shuttle device, can improve radiologist workflow during the typical task of viewing potentially hundreds of 2D CT and MR image slices using cine mode image navigation," said M. Stella Atkins, Ph.D., of the School of Computing Science, Simon Fraser University.
Atkins' experiment compared the three different interaction techniques in a group of nine radiologists and presented statistical results in the form of novel navigation charts, which illustrate image scrolling behavior over time (J Digit Imaging 2008 Jul 23 [Epub ahead of print]).
Findings show that the variation of the rate of scrolling was high within the group, but there was no statistical difference among the three image navigation interaction techniques.
"Subjective results suggest that radiologists prefer familiar mouse-based techniques for image navigation rather than the new contour shuttle," Atkins said.
Atkins did observe, however, that the fastest radiologist used the middle finger for mouse scrolling. The index and fourth fingers were used for conveniently pressing the mouse buttons.
"All other radiologists used the index finger for scrolling, which led to slower performance, because the index finger had to be moved to perform a right click," she said.
More radiologists also reported fatigue with this technique.
Atkins conducted a similar experiment with a user group of eight students.
"Most of the students preferred the new contour shuttle device," she said.
Atkins concludes that while having several techniques available on workstations for image navigation allows radiologists to choose their preferred method, it may also be advisable to teach radiologists to use the middle finger for scrolling.
"It may also be worthwhile to introduce new techniques to radiologists during training, such as the jog wheel," Atkins said.
MRI-Based AI Radiomics Model Offers 'Robust' Prediction of Perineural Invasion in Prostate Cancer
July 26th 2024A model that combines MRI-based deep learning radiomics and clinical factors demonstrated an 84.8 percent ROC AUC and a 92.6 percent precision-recall AUC for predicting perineural invasion in prostate cancer cases.
Breast MRI Study Examines Common Factors with False Negatives and False Positives
July 24th 2024The absence of ipsilateral breast hypervascularity is three times more likely to be associated with false-negative findings on breast MRI and non-mass enhancement lesions have a 4.5-fold likelihood of being linked to false-positive results, according to new research.
Can Polyenergetic Reconstruction Help Resolve Streak Artifacts in Photon Counting CT?
July 22nd 2024New research looking at photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) demonstrated significantly reduced variation and tracheal air density attenuation with polyenergetic reconstruction in contrast to monoenergetic reconstruction on chest CT.