Concept

STORY

CEO, noticing the lack of tools available for selecting the appropriate guiding catheter in PCI, questioned the current reliance on in-procedure adjustments and the frequent use of auxiliary devices. This led him to explore simulations using cardiac CT.

Initially, the guiding catheter was faithfully recreated using 3D CAD, but merging this with cardiac CT data in 3D CAD simulations did not yield successful results. It was impossible to accurately visualize how the guiding catheter would position itself and behave within the aorta during the procedure.

To address this, we experimented with incorporating 3D data of cardiac CT and guiding catheters into Virtual Reality (VR), allowing for catheter manipulation and fitting within a virtual space. This approach proved effective in providing high-precision simulations, especially for those familiar with actual PCI procedures, and it has contributed significantly to a variety of cases.

While experimenting with automating the process of creating polygon files from cardiac CT—a known challenge of VR simulation—CEO encountered our CTO. This led to the development of SWORD AORTA, an application that uses AI to extract coronary arteries and aorta from cardiac CT and convert them into polygons, thereby accelerating VR simulations. This application has been instrumental in post-TAVI PCI, endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), left atrial appendage closure (LAAC), pediatric cardiovascular interventions, and more.

However, recognizing that VR has limitations in daily clinical use due to its lack of versatility, we saw the need to develop a more applicable system for clinical settings. By analyzing the geometric algorithms used in VR simulations, we devised a method to leverage AI for simulation purposes. Our company was founded in May 2023 with the goal of developing this application.

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