diff --git a/CMakeExternals/PatchVTK-5.10-Mac.cmake b/CMakeExternals/PatchVTK-5.10-Mac.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3f46c3563e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CMakeExternals/PatchVTK-5.10-Mac.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# Called by VTK.cmake (ExternalProject_Add) as a patch for VTK 5.10 to work on Mac OS X
+
+# Updates vtkQtBarChart.cxx which fails to build on Mac OS X. The Mac OS X compiler can not resolve a isnan call of vtk.
+# Calling std::isnan solves this problem. But std::isnan is part of c++ 11 which most likely will not be recognized
+# by windows and linux compilers so this patch is needed only for Mac OS X systems
+# read whole file vtkQtBarChart.cxx
+file(STRINGS GUISupport/Qt/Chart/vtkQtBarChart.cxx sourceCode NEWLINE_CONSUME)
+
+# substitute dependency to gdcmMSFF by dependencies for more libraries
+string(REGEX REPLACE "[(]isnan" "(std::isnan" sourceCode ${sourceCode})
+
+# set variable CONTENTS, which is substituted in TEMPLATE_FILE
+set(CONTENTS ${sourceCode})
+configure_file(${TEMPLATE_FILE} GUISupport/Qt/Chart/vtkQtBarChart.cxx @ONLY)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
index b936ad2560..a230641da0 100644
--- a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
+++ b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
@@ -1,87 +1,116 @@
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # VTK
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 if(WIN32)
   option(VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE OFF)
 else(WIN32)
   option(VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE ON)
 endif(WIN32)
 
 # Sanity checks
 if(DEFINED VTK_DIR AND NOT EXISTS ${VTK_DIR})
   message(FATAL_ERROR "VTK_DIR variable is defined but corresponds to non-existing directory")
 endif()
 
 set(proj VTK)
 set(proj_DEPENDENCIES )
 set(VTK_DEPENDS ${proj})
 
 if(NOT DEFINED VTK_DIR)
 
   set(additional_cmake_args )
   if(MINGW)
     set(additional_cmake_args
         -DCMAKE_USE_WIN32_THREADS:BOOL=ON
         -DCMAKE_USE_PTHREADS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_VIDEO4WINDOWS:BOOL=OFF # no header files provided by MinGW
         )
   endif()
 
   if(MITK_USE_Python)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
          -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=ON
          -DVTK_USE_TK:BOOL=OFF
          -DVTK_WINDOWS_PYTHON_DEBUGGABLE:BOOL=OFF
         )
   endif()
   
   if(MITK_USE_QT)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
         -DDESIRED_QT_VERSION:STRING=4
         -DVTK_USE_GUISUPPORT:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_QVTK_QTOPENGL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_QT:BOOL=ON
         -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=${QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE}
      )
   endif()
 
+  set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.10.0.tar.gz)
+  set(VTK_URL_MD5 a0363f78910f466ba8f1bd5ab5437cb9)
+
   if(APPLE)
-    set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.8.0.tar.gz)
-    set(VTK_URL_MD5 37b7297d02d647cc6ca95b38174cb41f)
-  else()
-    set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.10.0.tar.gz)
-    set(VTK_URL_MD5 a0363f78910f466ba8f1bd5ab5437cb9)
-  endif()
+    set(VTK_PATCH_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DTEMPLATE_FILE:FILEPATH=${MITK_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeExternals/EmptyFileForPatching.dummy -P ${MITK_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeExternals/PatchVTK-5.10-Mac.cmake)
 
-  ExternalProject_Add(${proj}
+    ExternalProject_Add(${proj}
     SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-src
     BINARY_DIR ${proj}-build
     PREFIX ${proj}-cmake
     URL ${VTK_URL}
     URL_MD5 ${VTK_URL_MD5}
     INSTALL_COMMAND ""
+    PATCH_COMMAND ${VTK_PATCH_COMMAND}
     CMAKE_GENERATOR ${gen}
     CMAKE_ARGS
         ${ep_common_args}
         -DVTK_WRAP_TCL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_JAVA:BOOL=OFF
         -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON 
         -DVTK_USE_PARALLEL:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_CHARTS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_QTCHARTS:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_GEOVIS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE:BOOL=${VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE}
         -DVTK_USE_QVTK_QTOPENGL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_LEGACY_REMOVE:BOOL=ON
         ${additional_cmake_args}
      DEPENDS ${proj_DEPENDENCIES}
     )
+
+  else()
+
+    ExternalProject_Add(${proj}
+     SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-src
+     BINARY_DIR ${proj}-build
+     PREFIX ${proj}-cmake
+     URL ${VTK_URL}
+     URL_MD5 ${VTK_URL_MD5}
+     INSTALL_COMMAND ""
+     CMAKE_GENERATOR ${gen}
+     CMAKE_ARGS
+         ${ep_common_args}
+         -DVTK_WRAP_TCL:BOOL=OFF
+         -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=OFF
+         -DVTK_WRAP_JAVA:BOOL=OFF
+         -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON
+         -DVTK_USE_PARALLEL:BOOL=ON
+         -DVTK_USE_CHARTS:BOOL=OFF
+         -DVTK_USE_QTCHARTS:BOOL=ON
+         -DVTK_USE_GEOVIS:BOOL=OFF
+         -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE:BOOL=${VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE}
+         -DVTK_USE_QVTK_QTOPENGL:BOOL=OFF
+         -DVTK_LEGACY_REMOVE:BOOL=ON
+         ${additional_cmake_args}
+      DEPENDS ${proj_DEPENDENCIES}
+    )
+
+  endif()
+
   set(VTK_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-build)
 
 else()
 
   mitkMacroEmptyExternalProject(${proj} "${proj_DEPENDENCIES}")
   
 endif()