Surgeons able get 3-D look at heart before using scalpel
Mazankowski Institute has only such unit in Canada
A new high-tech 3-D visualization lab will allow Edmonton doctors to see detailed images of the human heart from the inside out, helping treat patients with complex heart problems.
The first of its kind in Canada, the 3-D Virtual Cardiac Centre at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute will let surgeons plan and perform operations more effectively to reduce wait times and complications. By manipulating a 3-D image of a heart on a large screen, doctors can see realistic details of a beating human heart from all angles. The lab allows for surgeons, cardiologists, radiologists, engineers, computing scientists and mathematicians to work together for better understanding of the human heart across all disciplines.
Until now, doctors have planned surgeries and treatments by looking at images of a patient’s heart on a regular 2-D screen. Seeing the heart in 3-D from all angles will help doctors plan treatment ahead of time and will allow patients to better understand their treatment and surgery. “We think it’s a big benefit, particularly for the surgeons,” Virtual Cardiac Centre Medical Director Michelle Noga said.
“With 2-D images, they often need help in the interpretation. When they look at the 3-D, it’s just instinctive to recognize what everything is, so they can plan better what to do when they get into the operating room.”
The lab was developed by researchers from the Mazankowski Institute, the U of A’s faculty of medicine and dentistry and the faculty of computer sciences.
Funding for the project was provided through a $1-million donation from French pharmaceutical group Servier Canada. Dr. Michelle Noga spoke more about the new technology and its implications. Q: What does 3-D visualization mean?
A: “We do a number of things, but one is 3-D visualization, which means that we can take any 3-D images from a patient and display them just as you would see them with your eyes, as a 3-D object.” Q: Why is it important to see in three dimensions?
A: “Currently our standard is to do 3-D imaging, but we display them on flat screens, so we lose a lot of the spatial information that 3-D actually gives us. We just make it back into 2-D. By adding 3-D to what we do, it makes everything more realistic and we’re able to communicate better with our surgeons and cardiologists, and they can really see what their patients really look like.
“It’s a way of seeing what the organs look like in the patient before they ever open the chest.” Q: How do you see this technology advancing?
A: “Right now it’s an open book. We’re very new and our work is very much in development. We had some software but had to build on to it because there’s nothing really out there that we can just buy and use out of the box. It’s the product of quite a bit of work, but it’s ongoing work. We want to make it more and more realistic. Hopefully in the end, you can just use your hands. So there’s all kinds of things we can do in the future to make it more realistic.” Q: As a radiologist, what is this new technology like for you?
A: “This is very exciting to me. I really felt that we lacked a way to really show what was going on with our patients. Now, when I’m sort of stuck with our usual tools, I just say to somebody. ‘Why don’t you come over to my lab and I’ll show you?’ Most people who come over are very impressed, because they’ve never seen it like that before. I think my days of drawing are behind me.”