Application for Deriving 2D Images from 3D CT Image Data for Research Purposes

Abstract: Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden, has long desired to plan hip prostheses with Computed Tomography (CT) scans instead of plain radiographs to save time and patient discomfort. This has not been possible previously as their current software is limited to prosthesis planning on traditional 2D X-ray images. The purpose of this project was therefore to create an application (software) that allows medical professionals to derive a 2D image from CT images that can be used for prosthesis planning. In order to create the application NumPy and The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) Python code libraries were utilised and tied together with a graphical user interface library called PyQt4. The application includes a graphical interface and methods for optimizing the images for prosthesis planning. The application was finished and serves its purpose but the quality of the images needs to be evaluated with a larger sample group.