Integrating computational fluid dynamics data into medical image visualization workflows via DICOM

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Radiology

Background:

• Communicating complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data to clinicians for risk assessment and treatment planning is challenging.
• Existing visualization tools often do not integrate with established medical imaging infrastructures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop techniques for translating CFD data into the DICOM file format.
• To enable interactive visualization of CFD data in standard radiological software.

Main Methods:

• CFD data (velocity, Q-criterion, pathlines) were resampled to structured grids.
• Novel raster-based techniques simulated optical blurring for pathline visualization.
• DICOM series were created by encoding CFD and lumen surface data into the PixelArray tag.

Main Results:

• 3D temporal CFD data in DICOM format were interactively rendered in Horos software.
• Transfer functions allowed real-time modification of visualizations (isosurfaces, volumetric rendering, pathlines).
• Voxelization strategies ensured lightweight data for real-time rendering and minimal storage.

Conclusions:

• Standardizing CFD data in DICOM facilitates clinical interaction and integration with radiological workflows.
• This approach enables the seamless incorporation of simulated and measured data into PACS and 3D/4D visualization environments.