Getting to heart of the matter

By PETER GRIFFIN

Uniservices has forged a multimillion-dollar partnership with medical equipment giant Siemens that will bring imaging software to clinicians worldwide.

Researchers at the University of Auckland have been working on Cardiac Image Modeller (CIM) software - which delivers a 3D view of the pumping heart, removing the need for doctors to wade through hundreds of two-dimensional images of the heart to identify defects and gather data.

It processes images taken by MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanners.

Dr Brett Cowan, a member of the development team, said the software delivered a wealth of numerical data about the heart, its capacity and the amount of blood pumped.

"The clinicians want the numbers - how heavy the heart is, how much blood pumps through it," he said. "The software can tell them that."

He would not reveal how much the contract would be worth to UniServices, but said the developers would continue providing Siemens with technical support and further software development.

Two developers were working at the university full time on the project. The software was patented in 1999 and will be packaged into Siemens' Argus software suite.

CIM, written in the C and C++ programming languages, was on Silicon Graphics servers but was being adapted for use on PCs.

Chris Occleshaw, a cardiac radiologist at Green Lane Hospital, said the software had been used there for about two years. About 200 MRI scans were taken each year, 100 of which were of children. Up to 70 were analysed using CIM.

The software was particularly useful in examining the hearts of children with congenital disorders.

"Children are often complicated patients, they can have funny-shaped hearts," he said.

The software was specially developed to concentrate on the heart.

"With most other organs you just want pictures, whether there is a brain tumour or not, those type of things," he said.

But the software could be adapted to display blood flow around the body in 3D.