{"id":288251,"date":"2023-01-26T20:51:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T20:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/research-team-closer-to-3d-printing-life-like-organs\/"},"modified":"2023-01-26T20:51:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T20:51:32","slug":"research-team-closer-to-3d-printing-life-like-organs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/research-team-closer-to-3d-printing-life-like-organs\/","title":{"rendered":"Research team closer to 3D printing life-like organs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A team of University of Colorado researchers has developed a new strategy for transforming medical images, such as CT or MRI scans, into incredibly detailed 3D models on the computer. The advance marks an important step toward printing lifelike representations of human anatomy that medical professionals can squish, poke and prod in the real world. <\/p>\n

The researchers describe their results in a paper published in December in the journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing<\/i>. <\/p>\n

The discovery stems from a collaboration between scientists at CU Boulder and CU Anschutz Medical Campus designed to address a major need in the medical world: Surgeons have long used imaging tools to plan out their procedures before stepping into the operating room. But you can\u2019t touch an MRI scan, said Robert MacCurdy, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and senior author of the new study. <\/p>\n

His team wants to fix that, giving doctors a new way to print realistic, and graspable, models of their patients\u2019 various body parts, down to the detail of their tiny blood vessels\u2014in other words, a model of your very own kidney entirely fabricated from soft and pliable polymers. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur method addresses the critical need to provide surgeons and patients with a greater understanding of patient-specific anatomy before the surgery ever takes place,\u201d said Robert MacCurdy, senior author of the new paper and an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at CU Boulder. <\/p>\n

The latest study gets the team closer to achieving that goal. In it, MacCurdy and his colleagues lay out a method for using scan data to develop maps of organs made up of billions of volumetric pixels, or \u201cvoxels\u201d\u2014like the pixels that make up a digital photograph, only three-dimensional. <\/p>\n

The researchers are currently experimenting with how they can use 3D printers to turn those maps into physical models that are more accurate than those available through existing tools. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my lab we look for alternative ways of representation that will feed, rather than interrupt, the thinking process of surgeons,\u201d said Jacobson, a clinical design researcher at the Inworks Innovation Initiative. \u201cThese representations become sources of ideas that help us and our surgical collaborators see and react to more of what is in the available data.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Research
Voxel map of a cross section of a human heart. Credit: Nicholas Jacobson
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Slicing the orange<\/h2>\n

Human organs are complicated\u2014made up of networks of tissue, blood vessels, nerves and more, all with their own texture and colors. <\/p>\n

Currently, medical professionals<\/a> try to capture these structures using \u201cboundary surface\u201d mapping, which, essentially, represents an object as a series of surfaces. <\/p>\n

\u201cThink of existing methods as representing an entire orange by only considering the exterior orange peel,\u201d MacCurdy said. \u201cWhen viewed that way, the entire orange is peel.\u201d <\/p>\n

His team\u2019s method, in contrast, is all juicy insides. <\/p>\n

The approach begins with a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) file, the standard 3D data that CT and MRI scans produce. Using custom software, MacCurdy and his colleagues convert that information into voxels, essentially slicing an organ into tiny cubes with a volume much smaller than a typical tear drop. <\/p>\n

And, MacCurdy said, the group can do all that without losing any information about the organs in the process\u2014something that\u2019s impossible with existing mapping methods. <\/p>\n

To test these tools, the team took real scan data of a human heart, kidney and brain, then created a map for each of those structures. The resulting maps were detailed enough that they could, for example, distinguish between the kidney\u2019s fleshy interior, or medulla, and its outer layer or, cortex\u2014both of which look pink to the human eye. <\/p>\n

\u201cSurgeons are constantly touching and interacting with tissues,\u201d MacCurdy said, \u201cSo we want to give them models that are both visual and tactile and as representative of what they\u2019re going to face as they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information:<\/strong>
Nicholas Jacobson et al, Defining Soft Tissue: Bitmap Printing of Soft Tissue for Surgical Planning, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing<\/i> (2022). DOI: 10.1089\/3dp.2021.0141<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Citation<\/strong>:
Research team closer to 3D printing life-like organs (2023, January 26)
retrieved 26 January 2023
from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2023-01-team-closer-3d-life-like.html <\/p>\n

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of University of Colorado researchers has developed a new strategy for transforming medical images, such as CT or MRI scans, into incredibly detailed 3D models on the computer. The advance marks an important step toward printing lifelike representations of human anatomy that medical professionals can squish, poke and prod in the real world. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}