ViVa: the virtual vascular project.

The aim of the virtual vascular project (ViVa) is to develop tools for the modern hemodynamicist and cardiovascular surgeon to study and interpret the constantly increasing amount of information being produced by noninvasive imaging equipment. In particular, we are developing a system able to process and visualize three-dimensional (3-D) medical data, reconstruct the geometry of arteries of specific patients, and simulate blood flow in them. The initial applications of the system will be for clinical research and training purposes. In a later stage, we will explore the application of the system to surgical planning. ViVa is based on an integrated set of tools, each dedicated to a specific aspect of the data processing and simulation pipeline: image processing and segmentation; real-time 3-D volume visualization; 3-D geometry reconstruction; 3-D mesh generation; and blood flow simulation and visualization.