About Cardia 3D
A real-time, procedurally-generated 3D heart designed to help medical and nursing students build intuition about how the heart pumps and how disease changes that mechanics.
Learning objectives
- • Identify the four chambers, valves, and great vessels in 3D space.
- • Describe the phases of the cardiac cycle and correlate them with valve motion and ECG.
- • Trace the conduction pathway from SA node to Purkinje fibers.
- • Map coronary anatomy to the territory each artery supplies.
- • Explain how CAD/MI, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure alter cardiac function.
Disease modes
CAD / MI
Plaque on the LAD; trigger an occlusion to watch downstream wall motion fail.
Hypertension
Concentric LV hypertrophy with elevated arterial pressures.
Atrial fibrillation
Chaotic atrial activation, irregular ventricular response, no organized P waves.
Heart failure
Reduced ejection fraction with functional mitral regurgitation.
How it's built
All anatomy is generated procedurally in Three.js using ellipsoidal chamber walls, tubular vessels along Catmull–Rom splines, and an instanced particle system for blood flow. The cardiac cycle drives scale, rotation, and shader parameters on every frame so visuals, valve motion, and the ECG stay synchronized.
Disclaimer
Cardia 3D is a stylized educational tool. Geometry is anatomically inspired but not patient-specific or clinically accurate at the millimeter level. It is not a diagnostic device.