The Unified Anatomical Human (Beta): Model-based Representation of Heterogeneous Anatomical Data

Three-dimensional anatomical models can be of great clinical value in surgical and educational applications. Mostly, three-dimensional models are reconstructed from Visible Human Datasets (VHDs). In the current VHDs, problems may arise in detecting finer anatomical structures, as is the case in the complex pelvic anatomy. Other datasources, such as CT, MR or immunohistochemistry, may reveal more detailed information about specific relevant anatomical structures. At this moment, there is no way of storing, accessing and visualizing all this information in one single solution. In this work, we present The Unified Anatomical Human: a method for the integration of heterogeneous anatomical data from different sources into a single model. This model allows for storage, retrieval and interactive visualization of arbitrary anatomical data sets. It forms an ideal foundation for further surgical and educational applications in any anatomical region of interest in the human body. Furthermore, we present the foundations for a highly detailed three-dimensional model of the human pelvis. This anatomically realistic model can serve as a solid basis for surgical training, pre-operative planning and medical education.