Fast-Track Virtual Reality to Facilitate 3D Reconstruction in Congenital Heart Disease.

Abstract

A limitation of the clinical use of 3D reconstruction and virtual reality (VR) systems is the relatively high cost and experience required to use hardware and software to effectively explore medical images. We have tried to simplify the process and validate a new tool developed for this purpose with a novel software. Five patients with right partial anomalous pulmonary venous return with adequate preoperative imaging acquired by magnetic resonance were enrolled. Five volunteers with no previous experience in the field of 3D reconstruction were instructed to use the software after a short video tutorial. Users were then asked to create a 3D model of each patient's heart with DIVA and their results were compared quantitatively and qualitatively with a benchmark reconstruction performed by an experienced user. All our participants recreated 3D models in a relatively short time, maintaining a good overall quality (average quality score ≥ 3 on a scale of 1-5). The overall trend of all the parameters analysed showed a statistical improvement between Case 1 and Case 5, as users become more and more experienced. DIVA is a very simple software that allows accurate 3D reconstruction in a relatively short time ("fast-track" VR). In this study, we demonstrated the potential use of DIVA by inexperienced users, with a significant improvement in quality and time after a few cases were performed. Further studies are needed to confirm the potential application of this technology on a larger scale.