Session S43.5

A Fiber Orientation Model of the Human Heart Using Classical Histological Methods, MRI and Interpolation Techniques

EK Theofilogiannakos*, GK Theofilogiannakos, A Anogeianaki, PG Danias, H Zairi,
T Zaraboukas, V Stergiou-Michailidou, K Kallaras, G Anogianakis

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, Greece

The knowledge of cardiac microstructure (fiber density and orientation) is a prerequisite for any large scale simulation of the electrical and mechanical behavior of the heart. Our objective is to present a 3D cardiac model of post-mortem heart that can be applied to quantitative analysis of electrocardiologic and cardiomechanical problems. Two adult postmortem hearts in the systolic state of contraction were photographed (with a digital camera) and then were subjected to MRI scanning (1 mm slice thickness section in three orthogonal planes) using a superconducting 1.5 T clinical scanner. Hence, anatomical slicing was performed using an automatic large circular cutter that created 3mm thick sections. The first one dissected vertical to its longitudinal axis, from the apex to the base, and the second one at the sagittal plane, from the right to the left ventricle. Each section was further diced into smaller specimens for further histological process (fixation, dehydration, clearing, embedding, sectioning and staining with hematoxylin-eosin). All the microscopic slides were digitized, using a scanner equipped with a transparency media adapter for scanning film, in order to be used for histological sections reconstructing. The need to define the fiber orientation led us to create a specific drawing package in MATLAB® called FiberCad. It is a full software package that was used to create a realistic 3D reconstruction of the heart. For each point of the extracted 3D model, information of the electrical characteristics and the prevalent fibers’ orientation can be accurately modeled. We present a human heart 3D fiber orientation model by using classical histological methods and the advances of MRI and contemporary computer programming.

(Abstract Control Number: 156)