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Tuesday, May 26, 1998 Last modified at 12:47 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26, 1998
Images add new dimension to medicine
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Doctors at the Veterans Administration Medical Center here want to see whether three-dimensional images created by holograms make a difference in diagnosing and treating people.
The 3-D image of organs, blood vessels or bones is an exact duplicate and the same size as the body part, which can help doctors be more precise and make smaller surgical cuts.
Dr. George Brown said he's used more than 100 holograms in treating people with broken pelvises. One advantage of the hologram is that it can show layers of bone fragments without one obscuring another, he said.
"With 3-D, you can turn it and see which part is deeper than another part. You know exactly where the broken pieces are," said Brown, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine who is one the VA hospital staff.
The hospital for the past couple of years has been test-running one hologram machine, the Voxcam, made by Voxel Inc. of California.
The holograms are compiled from CT scans or magnetic resonance imaging data. Such images consist of a series of visual slices through part of the body under study. The Voxcam, using a laser, puts them together into a 3-D whole.
"Human brains think well in three dimensions," said Dr. Michael Hartshorne, chief of the VA's joint imaging service. "We are used to encountering a world that has depth and dimension."
It isn't clear yet what the best use for the Voxcam will be, Hartshorne said.
"People around here who are playing with it seem to be captivated by the images of blood vessels and bones stripped of soft tissue," he said.
The holograms have been especially useful for doctors looking at blood vessels in the brain, a complex network whose every twist and turn is critical to a person's survival, Hartshorne said.
Holograms also have been used to look at blood vessels in the legs to pinpoint blockages, he said.
However, the images haven't been very effective at displaying tumors, he said.
The VA hospital here is the only hospital in the country to have a Voxcam on site, said J. Mack Adams, director of logistics and support for Voxel. The medical center has been a test site, in which Voxel provides the machine and associated equipment, and doctors in turn tell the company about problems and possibilities of the technology.