Virtual Reality and Heart Defects
Virtual reality helps diagnose heart defects by ZDNet’s Roland Piquepaille — Dutch doctors are using a virtual reality system to visualize the heart in three dimensions and detect if it is healthy or not. In a pilot study, ten doctors were able to move around virtual three-dimensional animated images or ‘holograms’ of the heart and to make correct diagnosis after a ten-minute training.
It sounds like a pretty good deal, but how does it compare to current methods of diagnosing heart defects? A standard ultrasound being performed by a technician (not a doctor) found the defect in my son Caden’s heart while my wife was less than five months pregnant. The diagnosis of his Interrupted Aortic Arch (IAA) type B with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) was confirmed with a standard fetal echo cardiogram on July 29, 2004 more than four months prior to Caden’s due date.