A preliminary methodology and precision study of producing 3D printing heart model by multimodel medical image fusion technology / 中华超声影像学杂志

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 .