Three-dimensional thoracic modeling for an anatomical compatibility study of the implantable total artificial heart.
Anatomical compatibility with the thoracic cavity is important in developing a completely implantable total artificial heart (TAH). The purpose of this study was to examine the optimal morphology of our TAH and to develop a computer implantation simulation environment for preoperational discussion. As the first stage, we constructed a prototype simulation system by creating a 3-D surface model of a thoracic cavity and one of a TAH. In this system, the thoracic surface model, composed of the aorta, pulmonary artery, ventricle resected heart, diaphragm, and thoracic wall, was created based on the organ contours extracted from electrocardiogram (ECG)-synchronized ultrafast computer tomographic images. The accuracy of the thoracic model was discussed using a phantom. The fitting study can be performed on the computer with the model of the thorax and that of the TAH. In the future, construction of a database for the thoracic cavities of heart failure patients is planned to improve the morphology of the TAH.
Zhang
B
B
Research Institute, National Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.
Masuzawa
T
T
Tatsumi
E
E
Taenaka
Y
Y
Uyama
C
C
Takano
H
H
Takamiya
M
M
D003198:Computer Simulation; D006354:Heart, Artificial; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D013909:Thorax / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed