SEEING THE HEART IN 3D
For the last 30 years, doctors have used echocardiograms to diagnose and treat heart conditions. Now, a new twist on the technology has them seeing the heart in 3D. We traveled all the way to the Netherlands to see it for ourselves.
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Virtual reality. It lets us see the world like we know it.
Now, the same technology is helping doctors see inside the heart. It's called I-Space.
Anton Koning
Computer Scientist
Erasmus Medical Center
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
"The I-Space room is made of projector screens that allows the images to float into space across people's eyes."
Special glasses and a handheld joystick let doctors delve deep into the anatomy of the heart from different angles and actually see it in 3D!
Annemien van den Bosch
Cardiologist
Erasmus University Hospital
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
"The nicest thing is that we can really see now the heart as it is in your body."
Currently, doctors only see slices of heart with a standard echocardiogram. Compare that to the
3D image.
Annemien van den Bosch "Now, you really see that this is the heart. This is what I want to know."
Here's how it works. Doctors send an ultrasound image to a technician -- who turns it into a 3D picture. The new image is projected on the screens, and infrared tracking reacts to movement.
Anton Koning
"We can surround people with the images, so they feel like they are standing in the middle instead of just looking at a screen."
The new technology could help doctors diagnose heart conditions and plan surgeries more precisely. Recently, 10 doctors tested the I-Space room. All the physicians were able to correctly diagnose a heart problem in less than 10 minutes.
Annemien van den Bosch
"They were very enthusiastic because they said, 'Wow, now I know where I can make my incision.'"
This high-tech solution is only being studied right now, but could be in your doctor's office in the near future!
The I-Space room is only being studied in the Netherlands. Doctors hope to make a smaller version of the technology that could be available in the next 5 to 10 years. The room cost more than a half a million dollars to build.
BACKGROUND: For the last 30 years, doctors have used echocardiograms to diagnose and treat heart conditions. An echocardiogram tells doctors how the heart is working and how it functions in the human body. It works by sending out echo signals to the heart and returns those signals to a probe. A machine then generates a picture of the heart. The benefit of echocardiography is that it poses no radiation dangers and is relatively harmless for patients. One downside of this technology is that doctors have to view the image of the heart on a two-dimensional computer screen; therefore, they are not able to see the heart as it really is in the body.
VIRTUAL REALITY FOR THE HEART: Now, researchers in the Netherlands are studying a new technology that lets them see 3-D images of the heart in a special room. The room, called I-Space, projects ultrasound-generated 3-D images on the walls and the floor. The animated holograms float in space in front of the viewers, much like a virtual reality video game. The viewers wear a pair of glasses with polarizing lenses that allow them to see the depth of the images.
Annemien van den Bosch, a cardiologist from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, says: "Now, we can see the images floating in front of us and exam the heart from every angle and really appreciate the three dimension of our data. The nicest thing is that you can really see now the heart as it is in your body, and that is something new. Normally, you could only see a slice of the heart, and now, you can see everything. You can look from above, from below and from all different sides. That is a big benefit."
BETTER DIAGNOSIS: The virtual technology could help doctors diagnose heart conditions and plan surgeries. Recently, researchers from Erasmus Medical Center invited 10 doctors (five cardiologists and five cardiac surgeons) to try out the new technology. Results showed all the physicians were able to correctly diagnose a heart problem in less than 10 minutes. Van den Bosch says: "They [the doctors] all said, 'Wow, this is really something that I can take home with me, and I have learned so much more than I ever had looking at other echo images.'" Van den Bosch says another interesting observation is that the cardiac surgeons were able to diagnose the problem quicker than the cardiologists. She says, "That's because cardiac surgeons always think in 3-D. They are very easy to switch, and cardiologists still think in 2-D."
THE FUTURE OF I-SPACE: Right now, the I-Space room is only being studied in The Netherlands. Doctors hope to make a smaller version of the technology that could be available. Van den Bosch says: "Already, 3-D flat screens are coming on the market right now, so I think that in five or 10 years, we can expect more I-Spaces will be inserted in the echo machine." The I-Space room cost more than half a million dollars to build.
www.cardiovascularultrasound.com
www.biomedcentral.com
www.erasmusmc.nl
Copyright © 2006 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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