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| 3D models of one person's heart. |
If you’ve ever wanted to show the special someone in your
life just how much you love them, it’s time to ditch the chocolate and
flowers. A new system developed by
researchers at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital converts an MRI scan of a
patient’s heart and into a physical 3-D printed model in a matter of
hours. While you may not be able to
actually take advantage of this technology as a consumer to print models of
your heart, it is set to make a splash in the medical community.
Before this technology, surgeons had to rely on two-dimensional
imaging to evaluate the heart of a patient.
Crucial decisions hinge on their ability to properly size up the
condition of a patient’s heart, which is hard to do when you have only flat
images to represent one of the most vital organs of your body. “Our collaborators are convinced that this
will make a difference,” says Polina Golland, a professor of electrical
engineering and computer science at MIT.
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| I can heartly believe it! |
MRIs produce many flat cross section images of your body and
use the contrast between light and dark to depict where there might be
abnormalities in the organ. However,
current algorithms used to help structure the images and spot abnormalities are
often insufficient and lack the precision desired by surgeons when considering
surgery. In the past, attempts at 3-D
modeling heart used algorithms that based the model largely on generalized
models of normal hearts; however, most patients requiring surgery have anything
but normal hearts. The patients’
irregularities are not depicted by these algorithms, thus rendering them
largely useless. Other models required
doctors to manually indicate boundaries on MRI scans. This laborious and tedious process led to
many errors and wasted resources. The
new algorithm developed by researchers automatizes the process, cuts time
required dramatically, and achieves 90% agreement with expert manual renditions
of the heart.
A clinical study will be conducted in the fall with 10
participating doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital.
“Absolutely, a 3-D model would indeed help,” says Sitaram Emani, a
cardiac surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital. “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.”
The medical field as a whole is already taking full
advantage of 3-D printing. From
artificial blood vessels, cheap prosthetic limbs, bones, and heart valves, to
even drugs, 3-D printing technology is driving the medical field into the
future thanks to its precision, convenience, and low cost.
References and Pictures: http://news.mit.edu/2015/3-d-printed-heart-models-surgery-0917
Paul, I also did my blog about MIT's computer science research with MRI's. It is so cool how they have created algorithms to account for movement in the MRI. This is such a big step in the medical field!
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