A preliminary methodology and precision study of producing 3D printing heart model by multimodel medical image fusion technology

Abstract

Objective To obtain abundant anatomical information using fusion of ultrasonic valve images and CT heart images and provide new methods of image processing for 3D heart printing. Methods Cardiac examinations of three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D-TEE) and DICOM images of 41 patients who had atrial fibrillation without structural cardiac diseases were analyzed retrospectively and the data afterward were processed by using Mimics software. For the single-mode image group, only the heart CT were invoked as the data sources. For the multimodel image group, CT and ultrasound images were invoked as the data sources. Valve structures of the 3D reconstructions were graded and the circumferences, areas and other parameters of the two groups were measured. The images of two groups were overlapped, and the angles between the two valve planes of each heart were evaluated and analysed. Results Score of valves reconstructed by ultrasound 3D construction was higher than those by CT reconstruction. Measurements of correlated parameters between the 3D-TEE group and the CT group showed no significant statistical difference(P>0.05), and the consistency was well. Ultrasound measurements of 3D reconstructed valves were well concordant with CT reconstructed valves by Bland-Altman analysis. Mean value and standard deviation of the angles between mitral valve annulus and aortic valve ring plane of each heart in the two group were (3.15±0.88)°, (2.87±0.76)°, respectively. Conclusions Ultrasonic valve images can fuse precisely with CT images and it provides a better displayed morphology. This will help improving simulation quality of the 3D printed hearts. Key words: Echocardiography; Image integrate and registration; 3D printing