Development of an intelligent simulator for training coronary artery angioplasty and stenting using virtual reality technology

To develop an intelligent multilingual software complex using virtual reality technology that enables training and the acquisition of skills in coronary artery angioplasty and stenting.

An analysis was carried out in the field of developing and implementing computer-based training simulators built on various integrated development environments, and general requirements for the software complex were drawn up. The analysis of international experience showed that most work in medical training has been implemented with the Unity development platform. Therefore, virtual reality technology using the Unity developer platform was chosen as the implementation technology and development environment. A camera algorithm was developed: since the user interacts with a first-person camera inside the scene, a camera system was created that makes it possible to observe what happens when instruments are inserted into the artery, as well as a first-person view. The user's view changes with the position of the body, head and hands.

An instrument algorithm was developed that allows the user to interact with medical instruments in a realistic virtual environment. 3D models of the instruments and text descriptions make the simulator accessible to users with different levels of medical knowledge.

An algorithm for the behavior of organic tissues was developed that allows the skin to deform when pressed and to be punctured for catheter insertion and other necessary medical procedures. Moreover, the user can adjust the characteristics of the artery to account for the individual features of each patient's vessels. Both hands are supported inside the simulator: code was developed that includes all the necessary functionality for both of the user's hands, so the user can fully take part in the operation and interact with both the instruments and the patient's virtual body. A mathematical model of the motion of an inhomogeneous compressible fluid based on the 2D–3D Navier–Stokes equations was created. The two-dimensional model was discretized using the finite difference method, and blood flow velocity distributions in a rectangular vessel region were obtained.

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To model the pulsatile nature of blood flow, a non-stationary boundary condition was implemented, and the results of two-dimensional blood flow solved by the Euler and Runge–Kutta methods are presented. The results show a wave-like pattern consistent with the pulsation function, and the maximum velocities at the peak of ejection roughly match the results reported by other authors.