3D reconstruction and visualisation for exploration of human axillary lymph nodes

Visualisation and data exploration is of interest in many areas of medicine. 3D reconstruction can lead to better understanding of structures and disease growth patterns. 3D serial section alignment and reconstruction techniques can be used for visualisation of complex histological data samples. Presented are the method and results using a system offering semi automated serial section alignment, and the use of voxel based rendering to construct informative visual representation of metastatic distribution within lymph nodes. The system developed has been implemented on a standard PC platform. The systems performance allows for installation and use on an inexpensive computing platform, with a modest PC producing rendering times of less than 1 second per image.