In their study appearing in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, the researchers demonstrated how their methods guided treatment decisions in four young children who had complex heart conditions that were present from birth.

Volume rendering is a computer graphics technique that creates 3D images directly from MRI scan data. It works by assigning colors and transparency to different tissue types based on how they appear in the MRI.

“Think of it like adjusting the settings on a photograph to highlight certain features,” said study co-author Matthew Jolley, M.D., a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and cardiologist at CHOP and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “We developed specific settings that make heart muscle and heart valves visible while making blood and surrounding tissues transparent.”