OBJECTIVE: After drawing and stacking contour of structures, which are identifed in the serially sectioned images, three-dimensional (3D) images can be made by surface reconstruction. The 3D images can be selected and rotated in a real time. The purpose of this research is to compose software of automatic surface reconstruction for making 3D images.

METHODS: Contours of 55 structures in the 613 magnetic resonance images of whole body were drawn to make segmented images. We composed automatic software for stacking contours of a structure, for converting the contours into polygons, and for connecting vertices of the neighboring polygons to fill gaps between polygons with triangular surfaces. The surface reconstruction software was excuted to make 3D images of 55 structures.

RESULTS: Virtual dissection software, on which 3D images could be selected and rotated, was composed.

CONCLUSION: For other research, this like program can be composed for automatic surface reconstruction; several kinds of commercial software can be used for manual or automatic surface reconstruction. Investigators might choose one of the methods in consideration of their only circumstances.