High-resolution reconstruction of a waxed heart specimen with flat panel volume computed tomography and rapid prototyping.

A waxed piglet heart was scanned with a flat panel volume computed tomography scanner (voxel size, 0.25 mm). Virtual and real laser-sintered models showed excellent visual concordance with the original. Using an iterative-closest-point algorithm, a very low mean surface distance was found between the original and laser-sintered model (0.26 +/- 0.34 mm). These techniques allow submillimeter 3-dimensional virtual and real reconstructions without destroying the original and might be useful for teaching, research, and planning of cardiac interventions.