Choose Approach for Medical Image Visualization

Medical Imaging Toolbox™ provides tools to display, explore, and publish 2-D and 3-D medical image data. Visualization is important for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning, and image analysis. Sharing snapshots and animations helps convey useful clinical information to patients, colleagues, and in publications.

Display 2-D Medical Image Data

2-D medical image data includes single images such as X-rays as well as multiframe image series such as ultrasound videos. The Medical Image Labeler app is useful for interactive display, especially when viewing multiple image files or labeled data. To view 2-D images without needing to launch the app, use the montage and implay object functions, which accept a medicalImage object as input.

This table describes the options for displaying 2-D medical image data using Medical Imaging Toolbox. If you do not have Medical Imaging Toolbox installed, see Display and Exploration (Image Processing Toolbox™).

Goal	Approach	See Also
Interactively explore images: View multiple related image files in one app session. Toggle visibility of labels and adjust label opacity. Adjust display contrast by modifying the intensity window and level.	Medical Image Labeler app Open the app from the MATLAB^® Toolstrip, on the Apps tab, under Image Processing and Computer Vision. Open the app from the MATLAB command prompt using `medicalImageLabeler`.	Label 2-D Ultrasound Series Using Medical Image Labeler
Publish snapshots and animations to view outside of MATLAB.	Medical Image Labeler app Open the app from the MATLAB Toolstrip, on the Apps tab, under Image Processing and Computer Vision. Open the app from the MATLAB command prompt using `medicalImageLabeler`.	Export Snapshot Image from App Export Animations from App
Programmatically display all frames in an image series.	Display the data in the `medicalImage` object `medImage` by using the command `montage(medImage)`.	Read, Process, and View Ultrasound Data
Programmatically play image series as a video.	Display the data in the `medicalImage` object `medImage` by using the command `implay(medImage)`.	Read, Process, and View Ultrasound Data

Display 3-D Medical Image Data

3-D medical image data includes volumes from modalities such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). The Medical Image Labeler app is useful for interactive display, especially when viewing multiple image files or labeled data. To view 3-D images without needing to launch the app, use the volshow and montage object functions or create a sliceViewer object, which all accept a medicalVolume object as input.

This table describes the options for displaying 3-D medical image data using Medical Imaging Toolbox. If you do not have Medical Imaging Toolbox installed, see Display and Exploration (Image Processing Toolbox).

Goal	Approach	See Also
Interactively explore image volumes: View multiple related image files in one app session. Toggle visibility of labels and adjust label opacity. Adjust display contrast by modifying the intensity window and level. Publish snapshots and animations to view outside of MATLAB.	Medical Image Labeler app Open the app from the MATLAB Toolstrip, on the Apps tab, under Image Processing and Computer Vision. Open the app from the MATLAB command prompt using `medicalImageLabeler`.	Visualize 3-D Medical Image Data Using Medical Image Labeler
Publish snapshots and animations to view outside of MATLAB.	Medical Image Labeler app Open the app from the MATLAB Toolstrip, on the Apps tab, under Image Processing and Computer Vision. Open the app from the MATLAB command prompt using `medicalImageLabeler`.	Export Snapshot Image from App Export Animations from App
Programmatically display volume in a figure window, with optional label overlays.	Display the data in the `medicalVolume` object `medVol` by using the command `volshow(medVol)`.	Display Medical Image Volume in Patient Coordinate System Display Labeled Medical Image Volume in Patient Coordinate System
Programmatically display multimodal volumes, such as CT and PET, overlaid together in a figure window.	Display one of the volumes by using the `volshow` function, and set the `OverlayData` property to display the second volume as an overlay.	Display Multimodal Medical Image Data from PET and CT
Programmatically display slices along one dimension.	Display the data in the `medicalVolume` object `medVol` by using the command `montage(medVol)`.	Read, Process, and Write 3-D Medical Images
Programmatically display slices along one dimension in a scrollable figure window.	Display the data in the `medicalVolume` object `medVol` by using the command `sliceViewer(medVol)`.	Display Medical Image Volume in Slice Viewer