Image fusion in open-architecture PACS-environment.

Multimodal digital imaging is common in many fields of diagnosis and therapy planning - there is great interest in matching globally, fusing or registering data from the same part of the body. In practice, there are still difficulties in customizing image fusion in hospitals. Efficient routine use of image fusion requires, among others, an image management infrastructure - a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) - to provide storage of image data in a standard digital format, intelligent image management and fault-tolerant high-speed image networking. In order to customize image fusion, advances in both fusion software and hardware are also needed. The algorithms should be automatic, fast and accurate enough. Registration of multimodal data also creates a need for different display techniques and user-friendly interfaces. Image fusion has been impractical and too tedious to be performed in routine work, but in the future, fused images will be used in clinical practice - even in teleradiological consultation.