March 18, 2004

Copyright ©2000-2004 Wil Lapointe. All rights are reserved.

MacAngioView is use at your own risk software. The author makes no implied warrantees as to the use of this software for any particular purpose and can not be held responsible for any injury or damages resulting from the use of this software.

First of all, thanks to all who contribute to MacAngioView. Your assistance has helped me stay online and in purchasing the software tools needed for development. While this project is still very much in need of support,  I'm confident that MacAngioView will continue on as a premier viewer for Xray Angiographic images.  Your contributions help in keeping your Mac a powerful tool in and out of the Cath Lab.  Also thanks to everyone who have sent in their suggestions and encouragement. And a very special thanks to my key supporters.

Version 1.0.9 - This version is being provided to release all of the current QuickTime Export, Digital Subtraction, and the new Roadmap features in hope of gaining much needed support for OS X development. There is no longer a DEMO version of the software since this has proven to be too much of a nuisance to most users who just want to use MacAngioView without making the effort to contribute. While this is unfortunate its better for my work to at least make a contribution to your efforts!

Roadmap for Vascular Imaging - The Display Menu and Subtract Dialog has been updated with a new Roadmap feature. When enabled image contrast is preserved within the cine loop to improve vascular imaging at slow acquisition rates. Please send me your comments on this new feature. The Roadmap and DSA features can easily be used in conjunction with each other.

QuickTime Export for Presentations and Web - QuickTime Export now supports encoding to all available video and animation formats via QuickTime's compression dialog. This should greatly assist QT6 users desiring export to MPEG-4 for web browsers. To export you must first select a cine run, set the desired replay rate, window level, zoom, pan, filter, and either the 512 or 1024 display size. DSA can be enabled or disabled during Export. After choosing the appropriate settings select Export from the MacAngioView menu and enter the name and location of the Movie. Press Save to view the compression settings dialog and OK to export the movie. If there is demand I could also allow the user to set the movie resolution size but that would be a feature for another version.

Digital Subtraction for Vascular Imaging - This feature supports mask averaging of up to 4 images and fractional mask registration of 1/16 to 1 pixel. Select Subtract from the Display menu to bring the DSA dialog into view. Step to any image within the run and press the Add button. Up to four individual images can be added to the mask list. Any single image can be added more than once to effect its weighting. To remove masks selections press the Clear buttion. Once mask selections are made check the Subtract box to enable DSA. Unchecking disables it. To change mask registration select the Mask increment from 1 pixel to 1/16 pixel and press the (U)p, (D)own, (L)eft, or (R)ight buttons to move the mask to its desired location. Pressing the Zero button moves the Mask back to its origin. All DSA settings are preserved between run selections. Note that most of this GUI is changing in OSX thanks to it Aqua interface.

Keyboard Shortcuts - Not everyone is aware of additional keyboard shortcuts so I am highlighting them here. The arrow keys work the same as the Arrows on the Replay Control eg. Forward, Reverse, Faster, and Slower. The Space Bar toggles the Play/Stop button. The F key enables/disables the Filter. And the plus (+) and minus(-) keys perform as Next Run and Previous Run.

MacOS X Support - MacAngioView has been tested in Classic Mode on all version of OS X up until 10.3.1. I will continue in purchasing all of Apple's system updates to be sure that MacAngioView continues to run on new systems from Apple. However, your contributions and support are still needed. While contributions are very limited even fewer bother to nag me to get to work on the update. If you haven't yet contributed to MacAngioView please make the effort.

MacOS X Hints - MacOS X Users should automatically launch Classic at system startup or login. Use OS X's System preferences Classic panel to enable Start Classic when you login. There was a problem with this in very early versions of OS X but it appears to be resolved. Also if you have recently updated your version of QT do not forget to also install the Update the version in Classic as well if you boot from MacOS 9. Download the MacOS 9 QT installer/Updater from Apple's site and follow the instruction.

Supporting MacAngioView - As always, any contribution from $10 to $100 helps support MacAngioView. That's a fraction of what a similar review station would cost from other vendors.  My recommended donation is $75.  It can be sent to my home address at:

Wil Lapointe
1181 Williams Hill Rd
Richmond, VT. 05477
U.S.A

1. Improved parsing for Philips CDR with Secondary Capture Images.
2. Added display of QT Export Compression dialog.
3. Added new Roadmap feature for Vascular imaging.
4. Purchased Codewarrior Pro 9 and updated sources.

Changes in Version 1.0.8 April 23, 2002:

5. Added demo versions of Digital Subtraction and QuickTime Export. Contributors of the recommended donation or more will receive the full release version via email.
6. Modified the next and previous run command keys to update the runlist view.

1. Improved vascular support...

Improved Frame Rate controls for better support of vascular acquisition rates.

Added support for 1K x 1K 8 bit JPG lossless for Toshiba STD-XA1K-CD

Added display resolution message to Patient Info

Increased MAXRUNS from 60 to 100

2. Fixed the highlight run selection problem when changing patients.

3. Now ignoring SC IMAGE images found on some GE, Camtronics, and HeartLab CDs.

4. Icons can be retrieved from 512K or 1K images when not present in the DICOMDIR.

5. Older CDs which do not include an offset table for JPEG lossless images can now be read.

6. Added support for STD-GEN-CD uncompressed (not tested).

7. Currently there are no outstanding bugs in Version 1.05. I'm either perfect or you're not telling me.

1. Fixed run list update problems when switching display to 1024x1024.

2. Replay is enabled by default when selecting a run.

3. The '+' and '-' keys can now be used to select next and previous runs.

4. Update to Universal 3.4 headers for Carbon

1. Cleaned up MacOS 9.1 display problems.

2. Fixed Save image and Save run to PICT menu items

3. Window Level Controls now reset when selecting a new patient.

4. Filter on/off setting is now persistent between run selections.

Xray images require 256 levels of gray and at least an 800 x 600 screen size for review. If you want to use color with 256 levels of gray then millions of colors must be available. The Monitors control panel can be used to select the correct monitor settings for your computer. First try 800 x 600 or 832 x 624 with 256 levels of gray. Then if millions of colors are available try selecting it. Note the larger the screen size the less number of colors are available depending on your video memory.

The amount of images that can be opened at a time depends on the amount of memory available to the MacAngioView application. The application's Get Info window displays the current memory settings. To change settings click on the MacAngioView icon and choose Get Info... from the Finder's File Menu. You can change the preferred memory settings to maximize the amount of memory available when launched. It's best to make this setting 2-4 megabytes less than the largest unused block of RAM before launching the application. The largest unused block can be determined by choosing the About This Computer... under the Finder's Apple Menu.

Note that using virtual memory will slow replay of images that are not in RAM. Preferred memory sizes should be set so that VM will never be used when enabled.

MacAngioView supports any zoom factor by selecting any region of interest within the image. This region is then zoomed to a full 512x512 or1024x1024 display. To zoom images click and hold the cursor on the top left corner of the region of image you want zoomed. While still holding the mouse button drag the mouse to the bottom right corner. When the mouse button is released the region is zoomed to fill the display area. To roam press and hold the mouse button within the image and drag the image to a new area. To unzoom click quickly anywhere within the image .

Now just choose Export from the MacAngioView menu.

Or the MacAngioView menu allows you to save the current image or cine run to PICT files. When saving a run to a sequence be sure to save all images to a new folder. Once saved, QuickTime Pro can open the sequence for display in QuickTime. It will ask you what the frame rate should be. Once in the Player you can save the Movie to your hard disk using any of the QuickTime settings including those for compression. You must register your QuickTime Player with Apple to obtain the QuickTime Pro features. Other shareware utilities such as Moover available are on the net will also allow you to convert a PICT sequences to a Movie file.

The easiest way is to use MacAngioView's controls is to display the image as you want it to be exported. Then choose copy from the Edit menu. Once in the clipboard you can paste to any application which supports the PICT image format at 256 levels of gray. Adobe's PhotoShop is a good example. Once pasted to the new application it can be saved to another graphics format.

Contributors always have first access to new features such as QuickTime Export via the File menu and Digital Subtraction. If you would like access to more features in MacAngioView then please send in my suggested contribution.

Keep checking my Web page. It now lists the latest version and date released.

Wil Lapointe
1181 Williams Hill Rd.
Richmond, VT. 05477
U.S.A.

I'd be more than happy to return it if requested.

Please support MacAngioView. If you like this software and would like to see it stay online you can always send your contributions to the address above. It costs me to develop this software and to provide a web page. And while I do it to demonstrate how well suited Macs are for Xray Angiography it would be nice to recover my costs. Please don't hesitate to support me.

MacAngioView is Copyright ©2000-2004 Wil Lapointe. All rights are reserved.

MacAngioView is use at your own risk software. The author makes no implied warrantees as to the use of this software for any particular purpose and can not be held responsible for any injury or damages resulting from the use of this software.