The virtual aneurysm. Virtual reality in endovascular therapy.

Image guided therapies, such as new endovascular procedures for treating brain aneurysms are now in clinical use. To plan these procedures, physicians currently use angiography to view projectional images of anatomy and blood flow. There are currently no available tools for visualizing the details of complex blood flow or predicting the effects of specific treatments. To address this problem, we have created a virtual environment for the visualization of blood flow and the simulated effects of therapy in brain aneurysms. The "Virtual Aneurysm" is composed using a combination of image processing, flow simulation, scientific visualization, and virtual reality techniques.