AquariusAPS (Advanced Processing Server)

TeraRecon’s new iNtuition workflow platform includes automated pre-processing (AquariusAPS: Advanced Processing Server) which can be programmed to automatically perform a variety of image processing steps such as bone removal and detection of centerlines, among others. iNtuition then enables optional validation and correction of the automatically processed data by a specialist such as a 3D technologist, allowing the reading physician to focus more time directly on diagnosis, and allowing the referring physician to directly access the 3D results for therapy planning or patient consultation without having to deal with complex and time-consuming editing or presentation tasks.

The automated procedures currently available on the AquariusAPS server element of the iNtuition architecture are as follows: automatic removal of the CT table, automated removal of the ribs from chest CT scans, automated removal of bony structures from CT scans, extraction of lumenal centerlines, image registration, calculation of parametric maps from time-dependent MR or other data, and automated detection of spherical structures and annotation thereof as potential regions of interest. Such procedures can be programmed to run automatically upon scan completion, or interactively upon invocation by the user of a thin-client terminal. Thus, even without a powerful PC, a thin-client user can access advanced image processing techniques performed remotely on the powerful AquariusAPS server.

AquariusAPS works by automatically creating and saving pre-calculated interactive “scenes." A scene is a DICOM-format data file used to store the results of some processing step (manually or automatically performed), such that it can later be opened, either to restore the system to a previous state for continued processing, or to facilitate direct review of the appropriate representation of the data. The portable scenes automatically generated by AquariusAPS can be opened and validated, even modified, by a specialist, and then re-saved for the physician to later open in the final, validated state. If desired, the validation can be performed directly by the physician themselves.