What is PIPSpro and What does it do ?

A software system package for medical image processing and display

PIPSpro is a software package for medical image processing and display. It is especially useful for the analysis of portal images in radiotherapy. Customers are using PIPSpro with Varian PortalVision, Elekta iView, Infimed Theraview, Siemens Beamview, Eliav PORTpro and digitized films. In some cases the main purpose is to use PIPSpro for quality control, in others the main use is in image enhancement and analysis, including the determination of setup errors. While PIPSpro can be installed in the Vendors PC computer ( Portal Vision and PORTpro ), it is more often used off-line elsewhere in the clinic.

Works with Vidar Film scanners

PIPSpro also works with Vidar film scanners and Lumisys Desktop CR systems. The combination of DesktopCR and PIPSpro is a very attractive package.

Used to process and analyse portal images from film

PIPSpro is also used to process and analyze portal images from film, and in fact one can do everything with film that can be done with electronic portal imagers. Of course a film digitizer must be available for this, as well as simulator films if they are to be used as the reference image. Very few centres use the EPIDs to make on line corrections to the patient set up. Many centres analyze their patient set up once a week, so it is unimportant if the images are acquired by an EPID or on film.

A wide range of image processing and analysis tools

The basic software system offers a wide range of image processing and analysis tools, many specially developed for portal images. A number of optional modules provide additional specialized procedures which may be added to the license if required. Software security is provided by a software key and additional keys may be purchased to operate PIPSpro on PC computers throughout the clinic.

QC-3 test phantom is uded in over 160 centres worlwide

The QC-3 test phantom is used in over 160 centres worldwide for objective and reproducible measurement of image quality from EPIDs . The PORTpro, iView and Portal Vision EPIDs require model QC-3V, while Beamview and SRI-100 require model QC-3F (for lower spatial resolution). This test is especially useful during installation, to optimize and determine the baseline image quality parameters for comparison with subsequent routine QA checks. the fully automated analysis provides information on image quality, spatial and noise resolution and effective focal spot size ( which has a major bearing on the portal image quality ). The QC-3 test phantom cannot be purchased alone as it requires PIPSpro for the analysis. Measurements with DesktopCR would be very interesting, since they would provide a quantitative comparison with the other commercial EPIDs.

Easy and Fast archiving and retrieval of images

About archiving and retrieval of images : PIPSpro will open ( with a single mouse click ) images with formats: bitmap, tiff, jpeg, DICOM-3 and PPM and many more. Since the Elekta iView and the Eliav PORTpro use bitmaps, these images are displayed with the OPEN command. Import filters are provided for images from Siemens Beamview, Philips SRI-100, Varian PortalVision (including compressed and zipped formats ), Infimed Theraview, CART, Poseidon and FTS formats. A general import routine allows the user to specify other format parameters such as image size, depth, header, byte order and a correction for aspect ratio if required. Images from film scanners can be imported without any problem. 16 bit images are intelligently converted to 8 bit bitmaps before processing, using the proper selection of bit planes to ensure optimal image quality. TYhis is perfectly adequate for portal images, but for precise analysis (such as with the QC-3 phantom ) the original 16 bit image data is used.

Easy Export of images

PIPSpro will export (save) images in the following formats: bitmap, tiff and jpeg ( with selectable compression ). Images may be printed individually or as a "group print" in which you select how many images are to be printed on a single page.