Aims & Objectives

One of the most clinically important heart diseases is the stenoses of the aortic valve, for example due to calcification. For its treatment the Klinik für Herzchirurgie Karlsruhe establishes an innovative minimally invasive surgical procedure, where an artificial valve is patient-friendly placed through a catheter. For the visualization of the operation area, permanent 2D X-ray screening is used.

In this context, AstemViz addresses two major questions: How to acquire more crucial information for pre-surgical planning and how to augment intra-surgical visualization capabilities, inter alia, to 3D. Together with our project partner Tridelity AG, EMCL aims to develop a cutting-edge computing and visualization system which provides supplementary medically relevant information gained by numerical simulations and glasses-free autostereoscopic visualization of the procedure during surgery. The main calculations are implemented and performed with the inhouse-developed multi-purpose finite element software HiFlow³.

Research Topics

To improve the possibilities of the pre-surgical risk analysis we investigate highly innovative methods for an augmented representation of the operation area as well as for numerical simulations of the blood flow and the vascular wall behaviour under pressure. Another crucial field of research is the 2D-3D data fusion of a pre-operative patient model with intra-surgery X-ray screenings. Hereby, optimized methods of scientific computing come into account.

Funding

This project is funded by the BMBF.

Partners

• Tridelity AG: provides glasses-free autostereoscopic 3-D screens and develops a wide range of solutions related to this innovative technology.
• Klinik für Herzchirurgie Karlsruhe: associated partner, specialized on heart surgery performing about 2500 heart surgeries every year.

People from EMCL

• Prof. Dr. Vincent Heuveline
• Jonas Kratzke

Contact 

Jonas Kratzke

Conferences

3D-EXPO des 3D-Festivals BEYOND

Publications

• T. Henn, V. Heuveline, M. J. Krause, S. Ritterbusch. Aortic Coarctation simulation based on the Lattice Boltzmann method: benchmark results. Statistical Atlases and Computational Models of the Heart. Imaging and Modelling Challenges 2013, LNCS 7746:34-43, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013.
• T. Henn, M.J. Krause, S. Ritterbusch and V. Heuveline. Lattice Boltzmann Method Meets Aortic Coarctation Model. In Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention - MICCAI 2012, volume 7746 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 34-43, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.
• R. Rosen, S. Ritterbusch, K. Möller, V. Heuveline. Risk Analysis For Catheter Guided Aortic Valve Implantation. Biomedical Engineering 58.1: 1164-1167, 2012.