For the first time, the Google Glass has become a tool in successfully restoring the blood flow of a chronically blocked right coronary artery in a 49year-old patient.
The virtual reality (VR) has been found by researchers to have the potential to revolutionize some aspects of medicine and healthcare. Times of India reports that a group of cardiologists from the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland, were successful in restoring the blood flow in the "occluded right coronary artery of a male patient assisted by CTA projections in a wearable VR device based on Google Glass, with an optical head-mounted display."
The research, published in Canadian Journal of Cardiology, also states that the procedure involved the successful "implantation of two drug-eluting stents."
The Google Glass, according to the News Oracle, were able to help the physicians in clearly visualizing the "distal coronary vessel and determine the direction of the guide wire relative to the course of the blocked vessel segment, clear the blockage, and implant two drug-releasing stents."
"This case exhibits the novel use of wearable gadgets for showcase of information in the catheterisation lab that can be utilized for better arranging and direction of interventional methodology," lead examiner Maksymilian P Opolski from the Institute of Cardiology said.
This tool has also played a vital role in the construction and digital presentation of tomographic images. The Google glass can be controlled through voice commands, leaving the hands free to work.
"Furthermore, wearable devices might be potentially equipped with filter lenses that provide protection against X-radiation. We believe wearable computers have a great potential to optimize percutaneous revascularization, and thus favorably affect interventional cardiologists in their daily clinical activities," Dr. Opolski said.
The Google Glass head-mounted display is able to capture both images and videos while interacting with the surrounding environment. Google is reportedly working on three versions of this head-mounted device.
