3D printing from cardiovascular CT: a practical guide and review (original) (raw)

3D Printed Models of Complex Anatomy in Cardiovascular Disease

Heart Research - Open Journal, 2015

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has undergone rapid developments over the last decades. The application of 3D printing has reached beyond the engineering field to medicine, with research showing many applications in cardiovascular disease. Due to the complexity of the cardiovascular system, application of 3D printing technology has shown potential value to benefit patients with cardiovascular disease. This mini-review provides an overview of applications of 3D printing in cardiovascular disease, with evidence of some of examples using patient-specific 3D printed models in the two common cardiovascular diseases, aortic dissection and abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Recent Applications of Three Dimensional Printing in Cardiovascular Medicine

Cells

Three dimensional (3D) printing, which consists in the conversion of digital images into a 3D physical model, is a promising and versatile field that, over the last decade, has experienced a rapid development in medicine. Cardiovascular medicine, in particular, is one of the fastest growing area for medical 3D printing. In this review, we firstly describe the major steps and the most common technologies used in the 3D printing process, then we present current applications of 3D printing with relevance to the cardiovascular field. The technology is more frequently used for the creation of anatomical 3D models useful for teaching, training, and procedural planning of complex surgical cases, as well as for facilitating communication with patients and their families. However, the most attractive and novel application of 3D printing in the last years is bioprinting, which holds the great potential to solve the ever-increasing crisis of organ shortage. In this review, we then present some...

Medical three-dimensional printing opens up new opportunities in cardiology and cardiac surgery

European Heart Journal, 2017

Advanced percutaneous and surgical procedures in structural and congenital heart disease require precise pre-procedural planning and continuous quality control. Although current imaging modalities and post-processing software assists with peri-procedural guidance, their capabilities for spatial conceptualization remain limited in two-and three-dimensional representations. In contrast, 3D printing offers not only improved visualization for procedural planning, but provides substantial information on the accuracy of surgical reconstruction and device implantations. Peri-procedural 3D printing has the potential to set standards of quality assurance and individualized healthcare in cardiovascular medicine and surgery. Nowadays, a variety of clinical applications are available showing how accurate 3D computer reformatting and physical 3D printouts of native anatomy, embedded pathology, and implants are and how they may assist in the development of innovative therapies. Accurate imaging of pathology including target region for intervention, its anatomic features and spatial relation to the surrounding structures is critical for selecting optimal approach and evaluation of procedural results. This review describes clinical applications of 3D printing, outlines current limitations, and highlights future implications for quality control, advanced medical education and training.

3D Printing for Cardiovascular Applications: From End-to-End Processes to Emerging Developments

Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 2021

3D printing as a means of fabrication has seen increasing applications in medicine in the last decade, becoming invaluable for cardiovascular applications. This rapidly developing technology has had a significant impact on cardiovascular research, its clinical translation and education. It has expanded our understanding of the cardiovascular system resulting in better devices, tools and consequently improved patient outcomes. This review discusses the latest developments and future directions of generating medical replicas (‘phantoms’) for use in the cardiovascular field, detailing the end-to-end process from medical imaging to capture structures of interest, to production and use of 3D printed models. We provide comparisons of available imaging modalities and overview of segmentation and post-processing techniques to process images for printing, detailed exploration of latest 3D printing methods and materials, and a comprehensive, up-to-date review of milestone applications and the...

3D-Printing in Congenital Cardiology: From Flatland to Spaceland

Journal of Clinical Imaging Science, 2016

Medical imaging has changed to a great extent over the past few decades. It has been revolutionized by three-dimensional (3D) imaging techniques. Despite much of modern medicine relying on 3D imaging, which can be obtained accurately, we keep on being limited by visualization of the 3D content on two-dimensional flat screens. 3D-printing of graspable models could become a feasible technique to overcome this gap. Therefore, we printed pre- and postoperative 3D-models of a complex congenital heart defect. With this example, we intend to illustrate that these models hold value in preoperative planning, postoperative evaluation of a complex procedure, communication with the patient, and education of trainees. At this moment, 3D printing only leaves a small footprint, but makes already a big impression in the domain of cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. Further studies including more patients and more validated applications are needed to streamline 3D printing in the clinical setting...

Using 3D-Printed Models to Advance Clinical Care

Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications, 2019

Structural Heart is a new field within the division of cardiovascular service lines. Structural heart has broadened the scope of delivery of cardiovascular care with its ability to deliver new valves and devices to heart patients who were once turned down for traditional open-heart surgery through the use of transcatheter delivery systems and device designs. However, in the absence of an open-surgical field, the main limitation in transcatheter device development and patient-centric care is the inability of the Structural Heart Implanter to palpate the patient's cardiac anatomy for device sizing and delivery. Application of 3D printing and 3D modeling are becoming a useful toolkit for Structural Heart Implanters, Imagers, and Device specialists within the Heart Team to use as a communication tool and case planning resource to optimize patient care, and patient safety. Transcatheter interventions have revolutionized not only the field of cardiology, but additionally the field of biomedical engineering within Cardiovascular Medicine through the incorporation of 3D simulation technology.

Quantitative and qualitative comparison of low- and high-cost 3D-printed heart models

Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery

Current visualization techniques of complex congenital heart disease (CHD) are unable to provide comprehensive visualization of the anomalous cardiac anatomy as the medical datasets can essentially only be viewed from a flat, two-dimensional (2D) screen. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has therefore been used to replicate patient-specific hearts in 3D views based on medical imaging datasets. This technique has been shown to have a positive impact on the preoperative planning of corrective surgery, patient-doctor communication, and the learning experience of medical students. However, 3D printing is often costly, and this impedes the routine application of this technology in clinical practice. This technical note aims to investigate whether reducing 3D printing costs can have any impact on the clinical value of the 3D-printed heart models. Low-cost and a high-cost 3D-printed models based on a selected case of CHD were generated with materials of differing cost. Quantitative assessment of dimensional accuracy of the cardiac anatomy and pathology was compared between the 3D-printed models and the original cardiac computed tomography (CT) images with excellent correlation (r=0.99). Qualitative evaluation of model usefulness showed no difference between the two models in medical applications.

3 Dimensional Printing in Cardiology: Innovation for Modern Education and Clinical Implementation

ACI (Acta Cardiologia Indonesiana), 2018

Medical uses of three-dimension (3D) printing have advantages for many importances, such as tissue and organ fabrication, creation of prosthetics, and model structural anatomy. Visualization of 3-dimensional structure of heart for the importance of examination, management or education is not fully comprehensive describe toward the complexity of anatomical structure and also toward the illustration of medical procedure. The aim of this study was to identify the potential application of heart’s 3D printing for the enhancement of case understanding for doctor, medical students or residents and also for patient and its family. A normal model of heart is used in this research to stimulate next 3D object in cardiology area.We retrieved data from patients’ CT scan performed in Gadjah Mada University Hospital, Yogyakarta from December 2017 to March 2018. Our focus is on normal heart anatomy. Data from CT scan results are exported into Digital Imaging and Communications format (DICOM), then ...

3D Modelling and Printing Technology to Produce Patient-Specific 3D Models

Heart, Lung and Circulation, 2019

A comprehensive knowledge of mitral valve (MV) anatomy is crucial in the assessment of MV disease. While the use of three-dimensional (3D) modelling and printing in MV assessment has undergone early clinical evaluation, the precision and usefulness of this technology requires further investigation. This study aimed to assess and validate 3D modelling and printing technology to produce patient-specific 3D MV models. Methods A prototype method for MV 3D modelling and printing was developed from computed tomography (CT) scans of a plastinated human heart. Mitral valve models were printed using four 3D printing methods and validated to assess precision. Cardiac CT and 3D echocardiography imaging data of four MV disease patients was used to produce patient-specific 3D printed models, and 40 cardiac health professionals (CHPs) were surveyed on the perceived value and potential uses of 3D models in a clinical setting. Results The prototype method demonstrated submillimetre precision for all four 3D printing methods used, and statistical analysis showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in precision between these methods. Patientspecific 3D printed models, particularly using multiple print materials, were considered useful by CHPs for preoperative planning, as well as other applications such as teaching and training. Conclusions This study suggests that, with further advances in 3D modelling and printing technology, patient-specific 3D MV models could serve as a useful clinical tool. The findings also highlight the potential of this technology to be applied in a variety of medical areas within both clinical and educational settings.