Virtual Heart: Simulation-Based Cardiac Physiology for Education

Abstract An investigation into the technical feasibility of computer based interactive simulation of the heart was conducted. The project is currently at prototype development phase, which is focused on the development of a virtual heart organ. The prototype will be customized for clinical skills training for interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, as well as for general cardiology education. Further development will incorporate an interface for handling catheter insertion for cardiac ablation and pacing. Modeling the Cardiac Anatomy A combination of automatic and manual segmentation techniques were used to extract a detailed 3D model of cardiac anatomy using the Visible Male image dataset b. Myocardium Fiber Orientations Fiber orientations of the myocytes are an important physical property for the following reasons A dataset of muscle fiber orientations in the myocardium was downloaded by permission from the Bioengineering Lab of the University of California, UCSD FTP site. This dataset was originally extracted from a canine heart using the method of Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance (DT-MRI) -an imaging process that registers the orientations of water molecules in the tissue. The dataset covers the region of the two ventricles and consists of approximately 1 million fiber nodes (see Specialized Conduction System The action potential in the heart is generated by specialized cells in the SA (Sino-Atrial) node and spread throughout the atria primarily by cell-to-cell conduction (se

Vector offset operators for deformable organic objects

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