Kai-hung Fung, M.D., said he began producing CT art in 2003, when he discovered that the capabilities of isotropic imaging and full-spectrum color rendering could create "innovative and colorful artworks in unprecedented perspectives to display the beauty of internal human anatomy." Dr. Fung is an interventional radiologist and neuroradiologist at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Hong Kong.

Using 3D reconstruction software to manipulate anonymous images from hospital archives in virtual reality, Dr. Fung experiments with settings such as ultrawide angles, different color spectrums and different algorithm selections. He also occasionally employs advanced 3D techniques like segmentation, virtual endoscopy and trimming. His stereoscopic pairs are generated by shifting the 3D images horizontally. "Even scans with artifacts can be employed for creation of artworks with surprising results," he said.

His piece, "What Lies Beyond Your Nose?", won first place in the photography category of the 2007 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge sponsored by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation. The artwork employed what Dr. Fung called the "rainbow technique," which he discovered accidentally while experimenting with software settings.

"It uses a very narrow algorithm and applies a rainbow spectrum of colors for rendering," said Dr. Fung. "At critical settings through manipulation on the window level and window width of the image, the layering artifacts due to individual CT slices will present rainbows of colors resembling contour lines to delineate the selected 3D structure representing specific CT density range."

Dr. Fung's creations have won a number of other awards as well, including recognition among National Geographic's "Best Science Images of 2007" and "Top Ten News Photo Galleries of 2007."

Some of the most remarkable components of Dr. Fung's images originate from unexpected structures such as thoracic fat, the haustral folds of the colon and malformations in thalamic arteries or artifacts formed during CT scanning after therapeutic removal of a piece of skull bone. Even positioning equipment visible on the scans can add intriguing lines and shapes. "Because the imageries are generated from genuine anatomical imaging data, they indeed represent the meeting point between art and science," said Dr. Fung.

"It is my greatest pleasure to share my art creations with RadioGraphics readers," Dr. Fung added.