We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us
GLOBETECH PUBLISHING LLC

Download Mobile App




Researchers Develop MRI-Derived 3-D-Printed Heart Models for Use in Surgical Planning

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 12 Oct 2015
Print article
Image: New system from MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital that can convert MRI scans into 3-D-printed heart models within a number of hours (Photo courtesy of Bryce Vickmark, MIT News).
Image: New system from MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital that can convert MRI scans into 3-D-printed heart models within a number of hours (Photo courtesy of Bryce Vickmark, MIT News).
Researchers have developed a technique to convert Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans into 3-D-printed models of a patient’s heart that takes only a few hours.

The models are intended to enable surgeons to prepare for surgery, and anticipate the anatomical idiosyncrasies of each patient by being able to assess a 3-D model using touch. The current approach that uses a generic model of the heart could hide features that surgeons need to see and feel.

The new system was developed by researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Boston, MA, USA), and Boston Children’s Hospital (Boston, MA, USA) and included manual identifications of boundaries, by an expert, in several cross sections, before computer algorithms continued the process. Manual segmentation of a patch of only one-ninth of the area in 14 cross-sections, and processing by the algorithm, resulted in 90% agreement with expert segmentation of a complete set of 200 cross sections. This combination resulted in a digital, 3-D heart within approximately one hour, while printing a 3-D model took several hours more.

Sitaram Emani, from Boston Children’s Hospital, said, “We have used this type of model in a few patients, and in fact performed ‘virtual surgery’ on the heart to simulate real conditions. Doing this really helped with the real surgery in terms of reducing the amount of time spent examining the heart and performing the repair. I think having this will also reduce the incidence of residual lesions — imperfections in repair — by allowing us to simulate and plan the size and shape of patches to be used.”

Related Links:

MIT
Boston Children’s Hospital


Gold Member
Solid State Kv/Dose Multi-Sensor
AGMS-DM+
New
Ultrasound Software
UltraExtend NX
New
Brachytherapy Planning System
Oncentra Brachy
New
Thyroid Shield
Standard Thyroid Shield

Print article

Channels

Ultrasound

view channel
Image: Structure of the proposed transparent ultrasound transducer and its optical transmittance (Photo courtesy of POSTECH)

Ultrasensitive Broadband Transparent Ultrasound Transducer Enhances Medical Diagnosis

The ultrasound-photoacoustic dual-modal imaging system combines molecular imaging contrast with ultrasound imaging. It can display molecular and structural details inside the body in real time without... Read more

Nuclear Medicine

view channel
Image: PET/CT of a 60-year-old male patient with clinical suspicion of lung cancer (Photo courtesy of EJNMMI Physics)

Early 30-Minute Dynamic FDG-PET Acquisition Could Halve Lung Scan Times

F-18 FDG-PET scans are a way to look inside the body using a special dye, and these scans can be either static or dynamic. Static scans happen 60 minutes after the dye is administered into the body, showing... Read more

Imaging IT

view channel
Image: The new Medical Imaging Suite makes healthcare imaging data more accessible, interoperable and useful (Photo courtesy of Google Cloud)

New Google Cloud Medical Imaging Suite Makes Imaging Healthcare Data More Accessible

Medical imaging is a critical tool used to diagnose patients, and there are billions of medical images scanned globally each year. Imaging data accounts for about 90% of all healthcare data1 and, until... Read more

Industry News

view channel
Image: The acquisition will expand IBA’s medical imaging quality assurance offering (Photo courtesy of Radcal)

IBA Acquires Radcal to Expand Medical Imaging Quality Assurance Offering

Ion Beam Applications S.A. (IBA, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium), the global leader in particle accelerator technology and a world-leading provider of dosimetry and quality assurance (QA) solutions, has entered... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.