Importance

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Abstract

Imaging and image reconstruction are sequentially performed for slices of a subject, and realtime images of the slices are displayed substantially at the same time. The slices may be perpendicular or parallel to one another, or they may form a stereoscopic pair. The images may be displayed two-dimensionally, or they may be combined and displayed three-dimensionally. One of the slices includes an insertion (a needle) for puncture or biopsy that is inserted into the subject by an operator, and it is parallel with a direction in which the insertion should advance. If the needle is displaced from the slice and a shade of the needle disappears from the sequentially-displayed images of the slice while the operator moves the needle toward an affected part in the subject in IVR, the shade of the needle appears on the sequentially-displayed images of another slice that is perpendicularly intersecting to or is adjacent and parallel to the above-mentioned slice. Hence, the operator can always determine the position and advancing direction of the needle.

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First Claim