Twice I've had MRI's in the past year.  Both times I tried to strike up a
conversation about getting my own copy of the data in a 3D format.  Both times
I struck out. Neither of them knew what DXF was.  One of them said that the end
product report featured a "rotatable" view of the examined structure, "but it's
not 3D."

Of course, I just wanted my own copy to play in 3D, but I'm wondering if I'm
just using language they don't understand, or if I've totally misunderstood
what (and WHEN in the analysis process) there is "3D" data.

Q: Has anyone ever gotten say a DXF file of their knee to play with?  How did
you get it, and when did you ask?

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On 16-Jan-09 0:28, gregjohn wrote:
> Twice I've had MRI's in the past year.  Both times I tried to strike up a
> conversation about getting my own copy of the data in a 3D format.  Both times
> I struck out. Neither of them knew what DXF was.  One of them said that the end
> product report featured a "rotatable" view of the examined structure, "but it's
> not 3D."
> 
> Of course, I just wanted my own copy to play in 3D, but I'm wondering if I'm
> just using language they don't understand, or if I've totally misunderstood
> what (and WHEN in the analysis process) there is "3D" data.
> 
> Q: Has anyone ever gotten say a DXF file of their knee to play with?  How did
> you get it, and when did you ask?
> 
If by DXF you mean a vector format then no. MRI is in Dicom format, that 
contains bitmapped slices with position and orientation information. If 
you have a regular space stack (general from a CT machine, sometimes 
enough slices in a set from an MRI) then the most logical format to 
convert to is a density file. For triangles you have to apply some other 
software. Easy to do, but not the way the data is normally stored. I do 
have my own torso and heart, not my extremities. I get that sort of data 
by asking the technician to put it on a CD/DVD or on a special server 
that I have access to ;)
The 3D rotatable thing is rendered as an isosurface in real time.

Next time ask for the Dicom files and I may be able to assist in a 
conversion.

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