Virtual 3-D Heart Beats Using Actual Electrical Data

Though it hasn't exactly set the 3-D modeling and simulation world aflutter, a significant milestone was achieved recently by Dassault Systemes' Simulia division when they successfully integrated a highly detailed 3-D model of a human heart with electrical impulse data to create a virtual beating heart. As recently reported by Forbes magazine's Joann Muller, by modeling a beating heart in 3-D, the hope is that one day doctors will be able to diagnose and treat patients based on the unique forces at work within each patient and even rehearse open-heart surgery on an individual before opening up his chest.

Steve Levine, chief strategy officer of Dassault Systèmes' Simulia, heads up the Living Heart project. Levine says that one needs to start with good data in order to produce an accurate simulation. The Living Heart project, he says, utilized data about the electrical and mechanical properties of the heart from a number of different sources, including academic researchers, cardiologists and medical device companies. They combined these inputs into one massive database.

It took a 48-processor workstation about four hours to calculate the precise biomechanical forces of a single heartbeat. The computer tracked electrical impulses through every strand of muscle fiber and arrived at the actual motion of a human heart. Once the electrophysiology was in place, the model operated on its own. "We do nothing more than pulse it the way nature does," said Levine.

This simulation used normal generic electrical data on a normal generic heart model. Though it's a few developmental generations down the road, patient-specific heart modeling and electrical data might soon be used to help cardiologists visualize exactly what's going on inside a heart attack victim, or to plot the exact intervention required to fix such electrocardiac abnormalities as Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, thus giving better results and improving patient outcomes.