Save Fused Images

Some PACS do not have capability to generate fused images, so it may be preferable to save a set of fused images.

This is far from ideal since the saved fused images are screen shots and cannot be modified. Still it is better than no images at all.

If fused images are not displayed the dialog will ask you to hit the Cancel button and then release the MIP button. Releasing the MIP causes a fused image to appear on section 3 of the main display. In principle, you could also choose to right click on the PET image and choose to display fused images in section 1. This is less desirable because there will be white space around the fused image and this white space will appear on the PACS collection.

Many times the PET images are smaller than the available area. In these cases it is probably a good idea to zoom the data so that it better fills the available area. The actual area is the rectangle which appears in the PET pane (i.e. the first of the 3 panes). Most of the time the image is square and there is white space above and below the axial slice (for coronal and sagital slices the area will be nicely filled). If you are saving axial slices, it makes sense to zoom the axial display, assuming that you can ignore small areas on the left and right sides.

The other side of the coin is that there is no point to having your display being near full screen. The PACS itself can zoom images, so you can safely reduce the size of the PetCtViewer window so that it roughly matches the resolution of your input data. This will avoid wasting space on the PACS with highly interpolated images, which contribute no real information. It will also save time in the image construction and save to disk, such that the time your computer is "dead" can be greatly reduced. It is better to have smaller images in which no information is lost than having you sit around waiting for the computer to finish writing all the inflated images.

The other point is you can reduce the number of images saved by adjusting the limits. For axial slices there is probably not much you can save, but in coronal and sagittal slices, there is no point saving images which are outside the body area. You can spin the limits so that you can see when interesting slices begin and end.

Once you press the OK button, leave the computer alone until it finishes writing all the slices to disk.

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