Alan Roots lay sedated under the bright lights of the University of Colorado Hospital's cardiac catheterization lab, waiting for doctors to open a clogged artery in his heart.
On a screen over the operating table, a three-dimensional image of his beating heart spun round and round -- while 20,000 cardiologists watched on a movie-sized screen at a conference in Washington DC University of Colorado Health Sciences Center researchers have worked 12 years to create new technology offering a 3-D view of the heart's inner workings that doctors can use during non-surgical procedures.
The 3-D image gives cardiologists a much clearer map for diagnosing and repairing blocked arteries inside the heart, said Dr. John Carroll, clinical chief of cardiology at University of Colorado Hospital.
Catheters -- small plastic tubes -- are inserted into veins in the arm or leg to access the heart for procedures such as angioplasties and stent placements.
Doctors can't see directly into the chest cavity and must rely on two-dimensional X-ray images to guide them, Carroll said. "There's a lot of skill needed," he said. "It creates a shadow-like image, and we lose a lot."
If cardiologists can't accurately see a patients' coronary artery, they may choose the wrong size stent or have problems once they've inserted the artery-opening device into the heart, according to Carroll.
The two-dimensional view also forces cardiologists to experiment to find where arteries are blocked or damaged and where a patient's blood flow is restricted.
Every time the doctor tries a different artery, the patient's bloodstream is injected with dye and radiated by imaging equipment. Both processes are toxic.
The use of those processes can be minimized by using more accurate 3-D modeling, Carroll told conference attendees during the telecast last week.
"We think we can perform more effective and safer [procedures] and do it more efficiently," he said.
Twelve years ago, Carroll and Dr. James Chen, a computer scientist, began experimenting with computer programs to try to model the beating heart in life-like form.
Five years ago, Royal Philips Electronics NV, Europe's largest electronics company, partnered with University Hospital specialists, sending financial support and two European medical-imagery experts to Denver.
Philips already is marketing software, developed by the CU team, that creates a 3-D model of arteries in the heart to help cardiologists plan for a procedure. Carroll and Chen are still perfecting the real-time system, which uses CT-scan images that can be used while working on the patient. "It doesn't just show the one coronary, it shows the whole heart," said Chen.
A day after the procedure, Roots, a Denver hair stylist who had felt tired and winded before doctors discovered his blocked artery, said he was "up, dressed and ready to go home."
"I was very lucky because I had the best of the best there," Roots said.
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