Vidcast: https://youtu.be/jn4huRqWUPM

We know that human hearts and the great vessels connecting to them vary enormously. These variations can make it difficult to choose the perfect prosthetic valve replacement for any given patient. Enter MIT engineers who have developed a process for turning medical images of any individual’s heart into a three dimensional printed exact replica using polymer ink. These flexible plastic replica hearts can even be made to pump when surrounded by pneumatic sleeves connected to reciprocating air pumps. After creating heart models for 15 real patients with aortic valve pathology, the researchers have been able to fine-tune their robotic systems such that the pressures and flows generated by the models match those actually measured during clinical cardiac catherizations. These 3D printed pumping models now make it possible to choose not only just the right replacement valve or aortic grafts, but also predict the expected improvement in blood flow they will provide after surgery.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.ade2184

#3dprinting #heart #valve #aorta #robotics