Nuclear Medicine Display Freeware
infoSNM
The Society of Nuclear Medicine
2007 Annual Meeting
Washington, DC
Sunday 3-June-2007 3:00-3:45 PM
Monday 4-June-2007 3:00-3:45 PM
J. Anthony Parker, MD PhD
The following list is a personal compilation of freeware which can be used to display Nuclear Medicine data. The definition of freeware is more complicated than I initially appreciated. Cost of software often depends upon the existing environment. For an engineer who already has MatLab, freeware written in the MatLab language is free. For others, purchase of MatLab will make the total cost of the freeware quite expensive. The most complete Radiology workstation freeware is Osirix. However, Osirix only runs on Mac OS X. For users who don't have a Macintosh, Osirix requires purchase of a whole new system. Hence rather than sticking to my assigned task, I have broadened it to include an idiosyncratic selection of freeware, shareware, and a few examples of commercial software.
Display freeware is often built upon processing and display toolkits. In the first section, I list a few of these toolkits. In the second section, I list a few general image display programs which can use DICOM (uck!) as input. These general programs might be adequate in some circumstances to display Nuclear Medicine images. The third section has a few other lists of display software available on the web. The fourth, fifth, and sixth sections are the key sections. The fourth section lists software that is in some sense Nuclear Medicine aware. The fifth section lists software that can be sent with the image data from a server to a Java competent browser. The final section has the only fully functional Radiology workstation.
There are marked differences between the various software packages, even within a particular section. Some software performs a fairly specific task, other is more general. Some software is easily extensible, other not. Some software comes with installers making simplifying instillation, other is difficult to get running. Some software is buggy, other is highly reliable.
The date when listed is the most recent date of the software or web site which I found. When a sponsor was prominently listed I have included that information, but this information is incomplete and inexact.
Bottom Line: For someone looking for a full-function, reliable, radiology workstation, OsiriX is in a class by itself. It outshines expensive commercial software. Because attention has been given to performance, it runs on a single platform, OS X. A cross platform alternative is ImageJ. Its small foot print allows it to be run not only as an application, but also as an applet within any Java competent browser. It is supplemented by a vast array of plugins including plugins from a broad user community. The disadvantage of this diversity is complexity in discovering just which plugins will perform a particular task.
For those users with an engineering background, MatLab or possibly FreeMat should be considered. Those users who are also interested in image processing should consider looking into the National Alliance for Medical Image Computing and the Slicer display software. This software makes available and extends the itk and vtk toolkits. (Of note, OsiriX is also extensible providing access to the itk and vtk toolkits.)
But, other programs listed below or not listed at all may have the right combination of ease of use and functionality that fits your particular task.
PixelMed: DICOM (uck!) toolkit
- description: "... stand-alone DICOM toolkit that implements code for reading and creating DICOM data, DICOM network and file support, a database of DICOM objects, support for display of directories, images, reports and spectra, and DICOM object validation."
- web site: http://www.pixelmed.com/
- developer: Dr. David A. Clunie
- environment: Java
NA-MIC kit: National Alliance for Medical Image Computing
vtk: Visualization Toolkit
- description: "... open source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing, and visualization ..."
- web site: http://vtk.org/
- wiki: http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK
- developer: published by Kitware
- environment: C++
- interfaces: Tcl/Tk, Java, Python
- platform: nearly every Unix, Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Mac OS X
itk: Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit
- description: "... open-source software system to support the Visible Human Project. Repository of fundamental image processing and display algorithms."
- web site: http://www.itk.org/
- wiki: http://www.itk.org/Wiki/ITK
- sponsor: National Library of Medicine
- environment: C++
- developers: Kitware, GE Corporate, Insightful, UNC Chapel Hill, University of Utah, University of Pennsylvania
GTK+
IDL: Interactive Data Language
- description: Data visualization and analysis platform. Programming environment on Windows includes GUI code builder
- web site: http://www.itt-vss.com/idl/
- commercial:
- ITT Visual Information Solutions formerly RSI, Research systems, Inc.
- free IDL: free distribution of IDL programs
- environment: C, C++
- interfaces: ActiveX, Java
- platform: Windows, Mac OS X, Unix
MatLab: Matrix Laboratory
- description: Matrix oriented programming environment provides facile access to complex calculations. Optionally includes display and DICOM (uck!) capability.
- web site: http://www.mathworks.com/
- commercial: The MathWorks
- environment: C
- platform: Linux, Windows XP/2000/Vista, Mac OS X, Solaris
- user: Jeff Fessler, University of Michigan
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Graphic Converter
- description: Macintosh shareware, which converts between a vast array of image formats, can read DICOM (uck!).
- web site: http://www.lemkesoft.com/
- sponsor: Shareware: Lemkesoft GmbH
- developer: Thorsten Lemke
- platform: Mac 9/OS X
Graphics Converter Pro
- description: "Graphics Converter Pro is an easy-to-use and powerful batch graphics converter and image viewer, that can import more than 500 graphic formats and export more than 100 formats including BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG and many others. "
- web site: http://www.iconcool.com/
- commercial: IconCool
- platform: Windows
Many More
idoimaging.com
Internet Analysis Tools Registry
AMIDE: Medical Imaging Data Examiner
- description: "AMIDE is a completely free tool for viewing, analyzing, and registering volumetric medical imaging data sets. It's been developed using GTK+/GNOME, and runs on any system that supports the toolkit (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X with fink, etc.)."
- web site: http://amide.sourceforge.net/
- environment: GTK+
- platform: Linux, Windows, OS X with Fink
DicomWorks
- description: "... DICOM viewer and converter."
- web site: http://dicom.online.fr/
- date: 4 August 2002
- developer: Phillipe Peuch, MD, Loic Boussel, MD
- platform: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT/XP
Dr. Razz
ezDICOM
- description: "This software is designed to display most medical images: MRI, CT, X-ray, and ultrasound. All versions of ezDICOM can automatically detect the format of a medical image and display it on the screen."
- web site: http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/ezdicom.html
- developer: Chris Rorden, PhD
- platform: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP, Linux
FusionViewer
GE MicroView & SliceView?
Imread Dicom Programs
iRad
- description: "iRad is a DICOM viewer exclusively written for MacOSX." Other tools on the site include database software and DICOM tools.
- web site: http://irad.sourceforge.net/
- date: 28-February-2004
- communication: DICOM with jDicomX
- platform: OS X
KIS: Kinetic Imaging System
- description: "KIS stands for Kinetic Imaging System. It is a fully integrated software system to assist the learning, planning, design, and data analysis of mouse microPET studies." KIS includes the ability to display images using the JANUS viewer. Access to KIS requires requesting a free account.
- web site: http://dragon.nuc.ucla.edu/kis/
- sponsor: UCLA Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology
- developer:
- environment: Java
- platform: Java competent browser
Madena
MIPAV - Medical Image Processing, Analysis, and Visualization
- description: "The MIPAV (Medical Image Processing, Analysis, and Visualization) application enables quantitative analysis and visualization of medical images of numerous modalities such as PET, MRI, CT, or microscopy. ÊUsing MIPAV's standard user-interface and analysis tools, researchers at remote sites (via the internet) can easily share research data and analyses, thereby enhancing their ability to research, diagnose, monitor, and treat medical disorders. "In an attempt to circumvent the varying and often confusing medical-image formats, the MIPAV group has introduced its own medical image format."
- web site: http://mipav.cit.nih.gov/
- communication: DICOM
- sponsor: Center of Information Technology, National Institutes of Health
- developer: Matthew McAuliffe, staff and contributors
- environment: Java
- platform: OS X, Windows, Unix
Medview
- description: ViewTec's MedView is the DICOM compatible, high performance and economical software product for digital medical imaging.
- web site: http://www.viewtec.ch/meddiv/medview_e.html
- commercial: ViewTec ($250/year)
- platform: Windows 2000/XP
MRIcro / MRIcron
- description:
- Converts medical images to SPM friendly Analyze format.
- View Analyze format images (big or little endian).
- Create Analyze format headers (big or little endian).
- Create 3D regions of interest (with computed volume & intensity).
- Overlap multiple regions of interest.
- Rotate images to match SPM template images.
- Export images to BMP, JPEG, PNG or TIF format.
- Yoked images: linked viewing of multiple images (e.g. view same coordinates of PET and MRI scans).
- web site: http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/mricro.html and http://www.sph.sc.edu/comd/rorden/mricron/
- developer: Chris Rorden, PhD
- platform: Windows, Linux, Solaris
MriWatcher
- description: "MriWatcher is a visualization tool for MRI images. It uses coupled cursors to show the differences between images. You can load an overlay images and do some screenshot."
- web site: http://www.ia.unc.edu/dev/download/mriwatcher/
- sponsor: UNC Neuro Image Analysis Laboratories
- platform: Windows, Unix, Solaris
Nuclear Medicine Mini-PACS & PET-CT Viewer
- description: Nuclear Medicine workstation.
- web site: http://bidmc.harvard.edu/default.asp?leaf_id=13580
- reference: Barbaras L, Tal I, Palmer MR, Parker JA, Kolodny GM: Shareware program for nuclear medicine and PET/CT PACS display and processing. Am J Roentgen 2007; 188:W565-W568.
- sponsor: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Nuclear Medicine Division
- developer: Ilan Tal
- environment: C++
- platform: Windows XP/2000/2003 Server/Vista
- description: "Slicer is a "point and click" end-user application. Slicer is used as a vehicle for delivering algorithms to computer scientists, biomedical researchers and clinical investigators. Slicer is distributed under an open source license without a reciprocity requirement and without restrictions on use. For a sampling of the portfolio of applications, please see the Slicer Gallery page."
- web site: http://www.slicer.org/
- wiki:
- communication: DICOM
- sponsor: NCRR, NIBIB, Roadmap, NCI, NSF, DOD
- developer: Surgical Planning Lab at Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT AI Lab
- environment: vtk, itk, C++
- platform: Mac OS X (darwin PPC), Windows, Solaris, Linux
(X)Medcom: Medical Image Conversion Utility
ImageJ (see above applications)
- description: ImageJ, described above, will also run as an applet.
- description: KIS runs as an applet.
Radscaper: Display Applet and CGI
- description: "... Java applet based DICOM web viewer with a thin footprint." Includes both client applet and server cgi.
- web site: http://www.divinev.com/radscaper/
- developer: Divinev
- environment: Applet - Java. Sever - cgi
- platform:
- Applet - Java competent browser
- Sever - Windows, Linux
If your favorite freeware has not been included or there are mistakes above, please let me know about it.
J. Anthony Parker, MD PhD
Tony_Parker@BIDMC.Harvard.edu
