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Abstract #4149

Combination of Structural & Functional MRI with Rapid Prototyping as a Neurosurgical Tool

Yu-Chun Chang1, Fred Nicolls2, Bruce S. Spottiswoode3,4

1Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Province, South Africa; 2Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Cape Town, South Africa; 3MRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town, South Africa; 4Department of Radiology, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa


This work presents methods to adapt MRI data to create rapid prototyped scale models of a subjects brain showing important structural and functional regions relative to a tumour. The grey matter of the structural MRI was segmented and co-registered to the fMRI data. This volume was split into two portions and meshed using a marching cubes and Laplacian smoothing algorithm. The accuracy of the model was shown to be 84.96%. The technique may prove useful for neurosurgical planning by providing clear reference landmarks on the surface of the brain, and by giving an intuitive indication of the depth and extent of the tumo