Steps toward the visualization of soft tissue

The use of tomographic imaging technologies has gained significant importance in recent years due to its capability of showing the internals of the human body. However, some structures of the anatomy are not easily visualized as they are not well-contrasted in the local neighborhood. With the use of apriori models, in the form of atlases of anatomy, physicians can overcome these difficulties and interpret patient data sets. As such, important parts of the head anatomy, like soft tissue, are beginning to be visualized when integrated rendering methods are used for this purpose.