Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Tsu, Mie, Japan; The Cardiac Registry, Departments of Cardiology, Pathology, and Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA.
The Cardiac Registry, Departments of Cardiology, Pathology, and Cardiac Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Cardiovasc Pathol. 2025 Jan-Feb;74:107690. doi: 10.1016/j.carpath.2024.107690. Epub 2024 Aug 30.
Postmortem heart specimens are essential for education and research on the anatomy, morphology, and pathology of congenital heart defects. However, such specimens are rarely obtained these days, and the specimens stored in formalin are inexorably deteriorating. This study aimed to develop methods to archive three-dimensional data of rare human heart specimens and to publish the data.
All wax-infiltrated human postmortem heart specimens stored in the Cardiac Registry, Boston Children's Hospital were scanned using microfocus computed tomography (X-Tek HMXST225, Nikon Metrology, Inc.), and reproduced using a three-dimensional printer (Form 3B, Formlabs Inc.). The digital models were published as an interactive three-dimensional online atlas. The resolution of the three-dimensional data was evaluated.
The primary diagnoses in the 88 specimens included in the study include normal cardiac anatomy (11 cases), transposition of the great arteries {S,D,D} (11 cases), ventricular septal defect (10 cases), double-outlet right ventricle (9 cases), hypoplastic left heart syndrome (9 cases), and common atrioventricular canal (7 cases). Twenty-five cases (28%) underwent previous surgical or percutaneous interventions to the heart, including Mustard procedure (1 case), Senning procedure (2 cases, one was performed on a postmortem heart specimen). The median voxel size of the three-dimensional data was 40.5 um (IQR, 32.8-64.2). All intracardiac structures were precisely reproduced as digital and physical three-dimensional models.
The methods and resultant models were considered useful for archiving and furthering the utilization of these invaluable specimens. The atlas is available at https://www.sketchfab.com/heartmodels/collections.
死后心脏标本对于先天性心脏病解剖学、形态学和病理学的教育和研究至关重要。然而，如今很少获得此类标本，而且保存在福尔马林中的标本正在不可避免地恶化。本研究旨在开发存档罕见人心标本三维数据的方法并发布这些数据。
使用微焦点计算机断层扫描（X-Tek HMXST225，尼康计量学公司）扫描保存在波士顿儿童医院心脏登记处的所有蜡浸人心死后标本，并使用三维打印机（Form 3B，Formlabs Inc.）复制。数字模型作为交互式三维在线图谱发布。评估三维数据的分辨率。
研究中包括的 88 个标本的主要诊断包括正常心脏解剖结构（11 例）、大动脉转位{S，D，D}（11 例）、室间隔缺损（10 例）、右心室双出口（9 例）、左心发育不良综合征（9 例）和共同房室管（7 例）。25 例（28%）曾接受过心脏的先前手术或经皮介入治疗，包括 mustard 手术（1 例）、senning 手术（2 例，其中 1 例在死后心脏标本上进行）。三维数据的中位体素大小为 40.5 μm（IQR，32.8-64.2）。所有心内结构都被精确地复制为数字和物理三维模型。
所采用的方法和所得模型被认为对于存档和进一步利用这些宝贵标本非常有用。图谱可在 https://www.sketchfab.com/heartmodels/collections 获得。
