LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging 17.0 released

Latest version adds DICOM dataset support, viewers, codecs and image processing functions for Silverlight.
July 20, 2010
Feature Release

LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging includes hand-picked and optimized features to meet the specific needs of medical imaging application development, such as full DICOM dataset support, support for 8-16 bit grayscale, and 12 and 16 bit image processing and display with window leveling and LUT processing. DICOM 3, the industry standard medical imaging format/protocol is fully and completely supported, allowing programmers access to medical images retrieved from digital imaging modalities such as CT and MR scanners. LEAD's DICOM imaging support is one of the richest in the industry supporting 8, 10, 12, 16, 24 and 32 bit images including JPEG (8, 10 , 12, 16-bit Lossless grayscale, 8, 12-bit lossy grayscale, 24-bit lossless and lossy color), Run Length, Uncompressed, Photometric Interpretation (Monochrome1, Monochrome2, Palletized, RGB, ARGB, CMYK, YBR Full 422, YBR Full), and single and multi-page images. LEAD's Medical Imaging toolkit includes 8-16 bit grayscale display with window leveling. Window leveling is a linear conversion from stored pixel values to values to be displayed; LEADTOOLS can map the stored pixel values of interest using a user defined color map (using a LUT or Palette) or linear gray LUT.

The following products are available:

Updates in V17.0

LEADTOOLS V17.0 has an extensive offering of new imaging technology and enhancements. A substantial portion of LEADTOOLS functionality including image format load and save, image processing, compression, display, effects and annotation is optimized to support 100% pure Silverlight development and can be used in Silverlight without external dependencies or server calls.  LEAD also now offers a .NET class library solution and x64 bit OS support for all functionality across the Document, Medical, Multimedia, and Raster imaging engines.

What's new in the LEADTOOLS 17 Medical Engine

  • Optimized internal core functions to dramatically increase the speed of image handling and processing.
  • New Silverlight DICOM dataset support. Create, load, view, edit and save DICOM datasets including pixel data, elements and annotations in Silverlight clients.
  • New Silverlight viewers. Image viewer, image list, pan window, and magnifying glass pixel shader.
  • New Silverlight codecs. Load, save and convert more than 100 formats and subformats including DICOM, TIFF, JBIG, JBIG2, IOCA, FAX (CCITT Group3/4), JPEG 2000, JPEG, BMP, CALS, GIF, PNG, TGA, and EXIF in Silverlight clients.
  • New Silverlight image processing functions. Process images on Silverlight clients with more than 130 advanced image processing functions including Window Level, Multiscale Enhancement, Tissue Equalization, Adaptive Contrast, Unsharp Mask, Auto Segment, Digital Subtract and Add Bitmaps.
  • New Silverlight annotations. Load, save, create and edit image annotations (markups) in Silverlight clients. Annotation object types include Rectangle, Ellipse, Highlight, Line, Redact, Text, Ruler, Protractor, CrossProduct, Image, TextPointer, Point, Curve, Point, Polygon and Polyline.
  • New Silverlight pixel shaders. Apply visual effects such as Window Level in Silverlight clients with more than 150 pixel shaders.
  • New Medical 3D module. Construct and view a 3-dimensional volume from a set of homogenous 2-dimensional medical images. Provides several rendering methods and tools for advanced visualization including MPR, A volume is constructed with Multi-Planar Reconstruction (MPR) by stacking axial slices. Slices of the volume are then cut in a different plane. VRT, A volume is constructed with VRT (Volume Rendering Technique) by assigning an opacity range to CT values to provide a clear definition of object outlines or a translucent visualization of objects. MIP, A volume is constructed with MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection) by projecting a volume of interest and rendering only the maximum CT values that intersect the viewing plane. MIP reconstructions are useful for angiographic studies. MinIP A volume is constructed with MinIP (Minimum Intensity Projection) by projecting a volume of interest and rendering only the minimum CT values that intersect the viewing plane. MinIP reconstructions are useful for assessing lung structures. and SSD. A volume is constructed with Shaded Surface Display (SSD) by applying a surface to a structure of interest within the volume. SSD provides a realistic 3D view of objects of interest. Viewing options include planes, clip, slab, scale, zoom, threshold, image processing, and full camera control. 3D rendering can be stand alone or hosted in the high-level LEADTOOLS Medical Image Viewer control to leverage the built-in tools and automation provided by the viewer control. Medical 3D module is available as an add-on or included in the LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging Suite SDK.
  • New support included with the LEADTOOLS PACS Framework:
    • New DICOM Router components. Route images to one or more PACS based on user-defined business rules.
    • New DICOM Work List components. IHE compliant server and client components for Modality Work List (MWL), Modality Performed Procedure Step (MPPS).
    • New DICOM High-Level Storage, Query and Retrieve Services. IHE compliant server and client components for DICOM Storage, Query and Retrieve.
  • Updates to the LEADTOOLS PACS Workstation Framework
    • Added support to create, manipulate and render 3D volumes from DICOM stacks.
    • Added cut-plane on 2D DICOM slices to generate 3D volumes with interactive support for positioning, orientation and volume thickness.
    • Added DICOM series reference line and orientation tag support.
    • Added extensive options to control the process of DICOM image storage into the Workstation database with the ability to generate images with different formats.
    • Enhanced Workstation listener service logging and added new event log viewer.
  • New Print to PACS application with project source code. Captures image data from printer driver, TWAIN, WIA, image file, clipboard, or screen capture and then saves the resultant DICOM file to disk or stores it to PACS using C-STORE. Includes options to get the required metadata from manual entry, Modality WorkList or PACS Queries.
  • Updates to layout control in the LEADTOOLS Medical Viewer
    • Supports unconstrained (non-grid) cell layouts.
    • Cells can host other WinForm controls such as the InternetBrowserControl.
    • Cells can be hosted by other WinForm controls.
    • Added new 3D cell type to the Medical Image Viewer control to render and manipulate 3D volumes providing several rendering methods and tools for advanced visualization including MPR, A volume is constructed with Multi-Planar Reconstruction (MPR) by stacking axial slices. Slices of the volume are then cut in a different plane. VRT, A volume is constructed with VRT (Volume Rendering Technique) by assigning an opacity range to CT values to provide a clear definition of object outlines or a translucent visualization of objects. MIP, A volume is constructed with MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection) by projecting a volume of interest and rendering only the maximum CT values that intersect the viewing plane. MIP reconstructions are useful for angiographic studies. MinIP A volume is constructed with MinIP (Minimum Intensity Projection) by projecting a volume of interest and rendering only the minimum CT values that intersect the viewing plane. MinIP reconstructions are useful for assessing lung structures. and SSD. A volume is constructed with Shaded Surface Display (SSD) by applying a surface to a structure of interest within the volume. SSD provides a realistic 3D view of objects of interest. Viewing options include planes, clip, slab, scale, zoom, threshold, image processing, and full camera control.
    • Added image overlapping.
  • New image processing functions:
    • New tissue equalization function to enhance x-ray images by performing equalization between hard and soft tissues.
    • New anisotropic diffusion function to enhance medical images by removing noise while maintaining image integrity.
    • New auto segment image processing function to automatically segment CT and MRI images by shrinking a defined rectangular region onto objects in the image.
    • New mean shift image processing filter to enhance images based on the color distance of a pixel and the pixels in a radius of inspection.
  • New DICOM dataset edit control.
  • Import and export DICOM to XML to easily edit and compare DICOM datasets.
  • Up to date DICOM IOD tables.
  • New support for the Analyze medical file format.

What's new in the LEADTOOLS 17 Raster Engine

  • Optimized internal core functions to dramatically increase the speed of image handling and processing.
  • .NET 4.0 binaries
  • New Visual Studio 2010 projects from all .NET and Silverlight sample applications
  • Enhanced WPF viewer controls
  • WPF Pixel Shaders
  • Added multi-monitor support to screen capture
  • Load PowerPoint files as an image
  • Word Doc files as an image
  • Excel XLS files as an image
  • Added folder watch feature to the LEADTOOLS Thumbnail Browser so that the Thumbnail Browser can automatically update when files are modified, added or deleted to the folder.

For more information visit:
http://www.leadtools.com/corporate/pr/LEAD17Medical.pdf (Adobe PDF)

About LEAD Technologies

LEAD Technologies, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 1990 by Moe Daher and Rich Little. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, LEAD was established to commercialize Mr. Daher's inventions in the field of digital imaging and compression technology. Over the course of LEAD's more than 20 year life span, LEAD has become the established global leader in the digital imaging development tool sector, with a leading market position in all major countries throughout the world. LEAD is the developer and publisher of LEADTOOLS, the award winning development toolkit.

Viewing a DICOM sample file with LEADTOOLS Medical Imaging SDK.

LEADTOOLS PACS Imaging SDK

Complete medical imaging and PACS client/server SDK.

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