KDS
MULTIMODAL DIGITAL MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING AND RENDERING
Now with DICOM Voice, Cloud sharing, dermatology solutions, several new languages, and more!!
KDS 64bits is most likely the easiest-to-use, most powerful, fastest, secure, stable, and affordable solution for the medical digital image processing available today in the market. And it is also available as a Server-installed Thin-client solution. Some of the main functionalities of KDS are:
2D
- applies window/level and width/level to images and adds predefined or user-customized levels
- applies convolution filter for noise-reduction (example: image improvement, edges, gaussian blur, bone filter, basic smoothing, high pass, replication, interpolation, etc.), and allows users to add more
- shows studies slice by slice or in mosaic mode (up to 16 slices in a single view)
- shows cine mode and navigates through slices in several ways: keyboard, from cine mode, with the mouse and through optional peripherals (such as jog-dial)
- modification of the visualization of demographic data (all, none or some) for viewing and/or printing
- applies different Color Look-Up Tables (CLUTs) simultaneously for different tissue density according to pathology, predefined and customizable
- measuring tools (length, angles, areas…) and annotation (text and arrows)
- ROIs –Region Of Interest– (drawing, propagating throughout a serie or selected slices, renaming, use as templates) and calculating volumes, histograms and tissue density calculation and signal intensity from those ROIs and stablishing ROIs through growing region (segmentation) with preview, employing 4 different algorithms
- visualization of different studies for comparison, showing different views and displays for each study on demand, in one or several screens according to the users’ configuration
- multimodal study fusion and subtraction (such as: PET-TAC –functional and anatomic–, CTs or MRs)
- co-registration, study synchronization, and series origin modification for fusion
- re-slicing (re-interpolation of studies’ images)
- view change (axial, coronal and sagital) in a single click
- image geometry modification
- image cropping and cut-out
- progressive and continuous zoom and pan
- supports VOI/LUT for DR
- image polarity inversion
- “slice addition” (transferring several slices to the same plane), allowing the viewing of the addition in MIP mode (Maximum Intensity Projection), MinIP (Minimum Intensity Projection), Medium, and slice transferring upwards or downwards from the axis
- 3D preview in a floating window
- 2D reconstruction:
MPR (multiplane)
MPR curve
MPR orthogonal
– 2D reconstructions allow the above mentioned “slice addition”, plus Medium, MIP or MinIP
Specific Trauma and Orthopedic tools
– Axis: allows the calculation of the main bone and artery axis. Calculated showing a line through the median point of 2 points in 2 different planes. It also shows data such as each side’s distances and angles
– Dynamic Cobb’s angle: measures the angle between two lines. Those lines do not need to cross within the image. It also offers inside angles and distance information, useful for measuring acetibular indexes
– Length discrepancy: measures small distance measures between 2 points. Applied to Orthopedics, it allows the measurement of the difference in position of symmetrical points in a patient (to determine if there is discrepancy in the length of extremities, vertebrae, femoral heads, etc.
– Radius-angle: measures distances and angles, as related to a variable-radius circle. Useful for measures related to humerus and femoral heads
– Lequesne angle: similar to radius-angle, but measuring the angles of two lines that begin right at the center of the circle
– Joint measurements: applied to the shoulder, hip and knee measures (in a very exact way) everything related to a joint and viable replacements. Available measures: axial length of the main bone or offspring, width of cannula, head to axis offset, angle relative to main axis, head radius, radius angle relative to main axis though Cobb
– Reimer migration: makes it easy to follow-up on patients who have had surgery, by superimposing this tool on test done over time. Comparing its measurement we can find out immediately if a replacement is moving inwards, outwards, upwards or downwards once placed
– Iliac measurements: full and easy-to-do hip study, with angles and distances for the patient’s correct anthropometric data
3D
KDS offers several ways of multidimensional DICOM file 3D rendering:
MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection)
Volume Rendering
Surface Rendering (up to 2 ISO surfaces)
Virtual Endoscopy (MPR Orthogonal rendering with 3D view of the camera’s position)
- allows the application of different opacity tables and adding new ones
- allows the application of different CLUTs to different tissues, and adding new ones
- convolution filter application to 3D images
- gets ROIs from 3D volume rendering
- automatically retrieves interest dots marked in 2D view
- 3D measuring tool
- 3D cropping and cut-out tools (scissors)
- multiplane cutting (cubical) of the 3D rendering
- real-lighting (shadows) visualization mode
- one-click bone removal tool
- exports 3D renderings to DICOM as part of the study, so it can be retrieved from the server
- fast switching from MIP reconstruction to volume rendering and back
- stereoscopic (stereogram) view of surface and volume rendering
- exports surface rendering to mesh for its use in other 3D applications (example: reconstructive surgery)
- images can be exported from all 3D modes to different image formats, movies, and VR
– allows the creation of animated movies and the generation of virtual endoscopy though a very easy-to-use “fly thru” tool
KDS allows 4D (3D + temporal cut) and 5D (2 studies fused, one of them with temporal cut) reconstruction.
Beyond image processing KDS offers a mix of features that are unique in the market:
- allows Query & Retrieve & Send for receiving and sending studies (with or without different compressions) to one or several image storages, as long as this kind of DICOM service is supported by the storage – with simultaneous searches in all specified servers –
- study sharing on a local network with other KDS, through Zero-Config protocol
- connexion to multiple servers
– multiple databases
– the database allows creating folders and smart folders (content updated dynamically according to the user’s defined criteria)
– the database can be reorganized and shown according to the needs of each user
- HIPPA compliant: patient data anonimization (manually, selectively, with templates, or automatically when importing the study)
- access to meta data and editing through templates
- files with formats other than DICOM (tiff, jpeg, avi, mpeg, mov) can be added to the database and viewed and processed directly in KDS
- exports to DICOM and other formats (such as those above mentioned, or prepares image to be sent by email) with a single click, with the integrated DICOM transponder
- highly configurable self-purging tool, to avoid storage saturation (disc filling)
- specific nuclear medicine tools (independent workstation not needed)
- configurable toolbar for each view
- new series based on key images, and opening only selected key images option
- report generating, viewing and editing (including DICOM SR) from within the main window, with configurable templates and available in “.rtf”, ”.doc”, and other formats
- autorouting for automatic study transfer to the designated machine, physician or storage volume
- export / import studies to / from external and/or network discs
- reads and records CDs and DVDs in DICOM format, with or without light viewer
- configurable keyboard shortcuts and configurable viewing according to user and study
- integrated videoconference and online collaboration (second opinions, teaching, etc)
- DICOM Print and standard print
- ready for grid computing (distributed processing)
- multi-task and multi-process support through one or several multicore processors and ready for native operation on a 64 bit Operating System
- functionalities can be easily added through plug-ins, such as: cardiac ejection fraction, ROI exporting, orthogonal reslice, etc.
KDS can also be configured as listener, directly connected to modalities, and as miniPACS server, serving studies to other workstations, which makes it very versatile, and allows a very flexible workflow.
Hardware
All KDS workstations share some common characteristics: 1 or 2 Intel 64 bit multicore (double or quadruple) processors, which allows exponential increases in the processing capacity with an important reduction in consumption, maximizing efficiency.
Multicore and 64 bit processing mean, together with a 64 bit operating system and applications specifically developed for 64 bit (such as KDS), a much higher performance, due to very high RAM addressing capabilities, which lets you work with very large files (completely loaded in RAM and without the need to write and retrieve information from the hard disc). KDS has already been developed in 64 bits and the operating system on which it runs already optimizes this characteristic in its core.
KDS workstations work perfectly along previously established PACS and RIS. So you don’t need different workstations for each part of the workflow. Additionally, its multi-user operating system and its secure-fast-user switch feature makes it very easy and fast for several users to work on the same KDS without the need to constantly open and close sessions.
KDS workstations can be equipped with 1 to 8 screens, with different characteristics: luminance, brightness, resolution, monochrome or color; depending on the chosen KDS configuration.