Development of Virtual 3D Stereoscopic Model of the Heart from Computed Tomography Angiography for Anatomy Education

Abstract

The development of 3D stereoscopic models usually requires the acquisition and conversion of voxel‐based CT or MRI data into 3D models. It has been reported recently that the computed tomography angiography (CTA) was used to create vascular models using volume rendering, and surface rendering. CTA images and volume rendering models have been extensively used for vasculature anatomy, detection and evaluation of intracranial aneurysms and diagnosis of ischemic stroke, however, the CTA data has not been well explored for creating heart stereoscopic virtual models using semi‐auto combined rendering for anatomy educational purpose. In this study, we utilize CTA data to develop a stereoscopic heart model using the semi‐auto combined rendering in addition to the volume and surface rendering methods. These CTA imagings happened to come from an individual with left‐sided superior vena cava (0.3–0.5% population). The heart displays good contrast in the CTA due to its rich blood supply, and large vessels were easily selected during the creation process. The visualization of the heart, associated major arteries, and their relationship can be viewed via the stereoscopic presentation. Future studies will include the measure and comparison of students' learning outcomes of anatomy knowledge using the model versus that of a cadaver heart.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.