Virtual Reality In The Cath Lab

If you’ve kept abreast of tech news in the last few years, specifically with regard to Google Glass, you’ll probably be aware of two things: 1. it has been met with scepticism and apprehension, and 2. at present it’s largely pointless.

I’ll admit that the second point is subjective, but now, this (my) subjective view is likely to change. A team of cardiologists from Warsaw have used Glass’ virtual reality capabilities to tackle what is referred to as the “final frontier in interventional cardiology” by repairing a total occlusion of the right coronary artery.

An effective visualisation of the coronary arteries is often lacking using normal angiography radiology techniques, but by employing coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA), a smartphone app and a headset based on Google Glass, the team at the Institute of Cardiology have successfully restored blood flow in the right coronary artery of a 49y/o male, with two drug- eluting stents.

“This case demonstrates the novel application of wearable devices for display of CTA data sets in the catheterization laboratory that can be used for better planning and guidance of interventional procedures, and provides proof of concept that wearable devices can improve operator comfort and procedure efficiency in interventional cardiology,” says lead investigator Maksymilian P. Opolski, of the Department of Interventional Cardiology and Angiology at the Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw.

The set up itself projects the three- dimensional CTA images onto the Glass-based head mounted display via a mobile app featuring voice command and a zoom function. The combination allows for digital viewing of the coronary artery, the occlusion and the placement of the guide wire for stent implantation. Thanks to its basis in Google Glass, the device can record video, view images and also allow the practitioner to see the surrounding environment, simultaneously. The possibility for the lenses to be fitted with filters that protect the user from x-rays only cement this technology as one that cardiologists will look to use increasingly, after this first success.

 

Virtual Reality might not be having the impact on video games that the industry had hoped, but it would appear to be having a profound impact on healthcare.

 

Ref: Canadian Journal of Cardiology, Elsevier Health Sciences