The world's first computerised library of human anatomy has been created. Medics and medical enthusiasts can now 'virtually' handle a man or woman's anatomy
FIFTYNINE-year-old Paul Jernigan and a
39-year old lady have, become the first-
ever 'virtual' couple. They
were selected to be part of an
ambitious, us $1.4-million-
project called the Visible
Human Project, supported by
the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) in Bethesda,
Maryland, us. The two offered
their bodies for the cause of
science because these have
been sliced, photographed and
the resultant images stored on
computer at the National
Library of Medicine at
Bethesda. This first complete A did
electronic record of the human
body is accessible over the
Internet as well as to any company
that wishes to develop it into a saleable
product.
The NIH announced the progress it
had made in a recent review meeting
with medical researchers at Bethesda.
The task of creating the images was
assigned to a group led by Victor Spitzer
and David Wheelok of the University of
Colorado Health Sciences Centre in
Denver, US, in 1991. It took them
over two years to find a suitable male
and female specimen as they were on
the look out for bodies that were
in excellent condition, physically fit
to be anatomised. The task was
also tough because the techniques
that the team employed had hitherto
been used for tracking problems in
living persons.
The bodies were initially embedded
in blocks of gel and frozen to a temperature of -70oc. Each body was then sliced
into one-millimetre-thin sections. Their
cross-sections were scanned using both
computerised tomography (CT) and
magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). CT is
a technique that measures the strength
of x-rays passed through the body of a
person from a number of directions,
and uses these measurements to build a
three-dimensional image displayed on a
screen. MRI is another technique to view
the insides of the body. In this case, the
pattern of the ions around a body placed
in a magnetic field is metred and used to
build an image. The device in use can
also be manipulated to strip away layers
of tissue so that a much more detailed
image can be obtained. The surface of
the exposed portion was photographed
with a digital and a conventional
camera. Since each of these bodies was
frozen in exactly the same attitude as
they were scanned, each of the real slices
corresponded perfectly with the virtual
one. Attitude refers to the angle at which
the bodies were photographed and
scanned.
What is rather novel about the
project is that it offers viewers the
ability to co-ordinate images. Users can
reassemble the slices into. whole bodies.
What's more, organs or tissues can be
manipulated at will. For instance, at the
click of a mouse, one can peel the skin
off the body and look at the muscles or
the organs lying beneath. One can even
penetrate solid muscle.
It is also possible to see how different anatomical structures could look
when viewed using different imaging
techniques. This enables doctors to
compare images using the CT and MRI
methods. Therefore, the technique is
likely to be a superior diagnostic tool.
However, the images are currently
being used only as teaching aids for
medical students. "Quite a few people
are suggesting that Visible Human
might eventually replace cadavers," says
Donald Lundberg, director of the NLM.
Human anatomy can therefore be
taught without yielding a scalpel.
The fact that 'good' and young
bodies are rarely donated to science has
inspired several companies to take an
enthusiastic interest in developing
products based on images of the duo.
Attempts are on to develop other
devices that would have a more direct
application in training health personnel.
HT Medical, based ' in Rockville,
Maryland, is working on a particularly
tricky exercise in training persons for
administering intravenous fluids and
injections. Information about the blood
vessels of the visible people has been
used to design a system that responds
with the correct amount of resistance to
the pressure of injection.
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