The Role of 3-D Heart Models in Planning and Executing Interventional Procedures

Percutaneous interventions aimed at addressing congenital and structural heart disease are simultaneously becoming more common and more complex as time progresses. An increasing number of heart defects that had previously required open heart surgery can now be successfully addressed in the cardiac catheterization laboratory. Adequate preprocedural preparation for these novel, complex procedures is critical to ensure their success. Diagnostic data can be collected before the intervention and displayed in multiple formats during the procedure. Advanced cardiac imaging, including cardiac magnetic resonance and cardiac computed tomography form the basis of this preparatory information. Novel methods of displaying these images are becoming more widespread and more useful, including 3-D printed models, 3-D digital models displayed on a virtual or augmented reality system and 3-D digital models overlaid onto a fluoroscopy system. In this review we summarize these state-of-the-art technologies and how they are able to help interventional cardiologists push the boundaries of what is possible in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.