Development of a Training System for Cardiac Muscle Palpation

Touching the cardiac muscle is necessary to get mechanical conditions of muscle before cardiac surgery. The cardiac palpation is the only way to make surgical plans for left ventricular plastic surgery. The training system for cardiac palpation we have developed consists of a MRI-based virtual left ventricular image and a one-dimensional manipulator as a haptic device. Mechanical properties of the cardiac muscles of a dog and a pig are embedded in the virtual heart. Our experiments show that the developed training system enables users to feel the reactional force to the virtual heart surface from the manipulator in real time.