PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

3-D printed heart could reduce heart surgeries in children

Doctors can perfect procedures on a model before the intervention

2014-12-05
(Press-News.org) Vienna, Austria - 5 December 2014: New 3D printed heart technology could reduce the number of heart surgeries in children with congenital heart disease, according to Dr Peter Verschueren who spoke on the topic today at EuroEcho-Imaging 2014.1 Dr Verschueren brought 3D printed models of the heart to his lecture including models used to plan real cases in patients.

EuroEcho-Imaging is the annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and is held 3-6 December in Vienna, Austria.

Dr Verschueren said: "Children with congenital heart disease often need up to four open heart surgeries at different times of life. The 3D printed copy of the heart could reduce this to one or two because doctors can choose and practice the best interventional approach and device beforehand. This will avoid children spending months in intensive care."

Three dimensional (3D) printing uses a machine to print objects layer by layer. Instead of ink the printer uses plastics, metals and other materials. The technology was first used in the automotive and aerospace industries to make prototypes. Dr Verschueren said: "You can make complex, unique things, which is useful in medicine because each patient is different."

3D printing entered the medical field around two decades ago in craniomaxillofacial and orthopaedic surgery. 3D reconstructions of a patient's bone were made from a computed tomography (CT) scan. Today the technology is also used to make hearing aids. Printing 3D hearts was made possible with flexible materials for printing and fast scanners that can trace the beating heart. A CT or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan is used to print muscles and valves which can be beating or static.

The models are used to plan surgeries in children with congenital heart diseases such as double outlet right ventricle or Tetralogy of Fallot. Dr Verschueren said: "Until recently, doctors would look at an image and then try to visualise the heart in 3D. Now they can use a 3D copy of an individual patient's heart to plan the procedure in detail before they go into the operating theatre."

He added: "This is still a relatively new technology but there is increasing interest in using 3D printed models to plan heart valve interventions in adults. This could include complex bicuspid aortic valve cases that doctors want to treat with transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and new transcatheter interventions for repairing or replacing the mitral and tricuspid valves."

Today at EuroEcho-Imaging, biomedical research engineer Helen O' Grady from Galway, Ireland, presents a novel 3D printed model of tricuspid regurgitation she developed to test a new device and train interventionists in the implantation procedure.2 Ms O'Grady used CT scans of tricuspid regurgitation patients to build a 3D software model which she then used for 3D printing of a right heart and tricuspid valve annulus model..

She took the additional step of using the 3D printed model to mould a more flexible model that is compatible with echocardiography and fluoroscopy. It is housed in a cardiac anatomy rig that replicates the anatomical conditions of the heart in the body as well as the leaflet motion of the valve. Doctors can use the model to practice implantation of the device on a patient's exact anatomy before the procedure.

Ms O'Grady, said: "There is a variation in normal anatomies and more so in diseased anatomies such as tricuspid regurgitation. Being able to practice on the model allows for better surgical planning and doctors can optimise the interventional procedure pre-operatively. Cardiologists, surgeons and physicians say there's nothing like having a tangible model in your hands as it gives such invaluable insight into the patient anatomy involved."

She added: "3D models can be used to discuss the intervention with the medical team, patients and, in the case of congenital heart defects, with parents. It helps everyone affected to better understand what the procedure will involve."

Professor Patrizio Lancellotti, EACVI President, said: "3D imaging is a main theme of EuroEcho-Imaging this year and 3D printing of the heart is particularly exciting. It allows us to make a perfect model of a patient's anatomy and decide the optimal device and procedure in advance."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Austrian researchers show encapsulation of cancer drugs reduces heart damage

2014-12-05
Vienna, Austria - 05 December 2014: Austrian researchers have shown that a new technique which wraps chemotherapy drugs in a fatty cover (called a liposome) reduces heart damage, in a study presented today at EuroEcho-Imaging 2014 by Professor Jutta Bergler-Klein and Professor Mariann Gyöngyösi from the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. EuroEcho-Imaging is the annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), and is held 3-6 December in Vienna. Professor Bergler-Klein said: ...

New single-cell analysis reveals complex variations in stem cells

2014-12-05
(BOSTON) -- Stem cells offer great potential in biomedical engineering due to their pluripotency, which is the ability to multiply indefinitely and also to differentiate and develop into any kind of the hundreds of different cells and bodily tissues. But the precise complexity of how stem cell development is regulated throughout states of cellular change has been difficult to pinpoint until now. By using powerful new single-cell genetic profiling techniques, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Boston Children's Hospital have uncovered ...

Predicting the storm: Can computer models improve stem cell transplantation?

2014-12-05
Is the human immune system similar to the weather, a seemingly random yet dynamical system that can be modeled based on past conditions to predict future states? Scientists at VCU Massey Cancer Center's award-winning Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program believe it is, and they recently published several studies that support the possibility of using next-generation DNA sequencing and mathematical modeling to not only understand the variability observed in clinical outcomes of stem cell transplantation, but also to provide a theoretical framework to make transplantation a ...

Sun emits a mid-level flare on Dec. 4, 2014

Sun emits a mid-level flare on Dec. 4, 2014
2014-12-04
On Dec. 4, 2014, the sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 1:25 p.m. EST. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. To see how this event may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center at http://spaceweather.gov, ...

NASA observes Super Typhoon Hagupit; Philippines under warnings

NASA observes Super Typhoon Hagupit; Philippines under warnings
2014-12-04
Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect Super Typhoon Hagupit to reach peak intensity today, Dec. 4, and although expected to weaken, will remain a Category 4 typhoon when it approaches the east central Philippines. NASA's Terra satellite and NASA/JAXA's GPM and TRMM satellites have been providing forecasters with valuable data on the storm. Computer models have varied on their track for the storm based on the strength of an upper-level system, so satellite data is extremely valuable in helping determine where Hagupit will move. On Dec. 3, typhoon Hagupit ...

Modern monitoring systems contribute to alarm fatigue in hospitals

2014-12-04
(Chapel Hill, N.C. - Dec 4, 2014) - Jessica Zègre-Hemsey, a cardiac monitoring expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her colleagues at the University of California San Francisco, revealed more than 2.5 million alarms were triggered on bedside monitors in a single month - the first figure ever reported from a real-world hospital setting. Alarm fatigue occurs when nurses and other clinicians are exposed to a high number of physiological alarms generated by modern monitoring systems. In turn, alarms are ignored and critical alarms are missed ...

A little rest from grazing improves native grasslands

2014-12-04
Petaluma, CA - Just like us, grasslands need rest to improve their health. A study just published by Point Blue Conservation Science in the journal Ecological Restoration shows a 72 percent increase in where native perennial grasses were found on a coastal California ranch when cattle grazing was changed to give the land more time to rest. Over the last 300 years, nonnative annual grasses have invaded California's grasslands. These exotic grasses complete their lifecycle in one year and out-compete the native perennial grasses (grasses that live for multiple years). ...

Distrust of police is top reason Latinos don't call 911 for cardiac arrest

2014-12-04
WASHINGTON - Fear of police, language barriers, lack of knowledge of cardiac arrest symptoms and financial concerns prevent Latinos - particularly those of lower socioeconomic status - from seeking emergency medical help and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to a study published online yesterday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Barriers to Calling 911 and Learning and Performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for Residents of Primarily Latino, High-Risk Neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado"). "Residents of low-income, minority neighborhoods ...

Imaging techniques reliably predict treatment outcomes for TB patients

Imaging techniques reliably predict treatment outcomes for TB patients
2014-12-04
WHAT: Two medical imaging techniques, called positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), could be used in combination as a biomarker to predict the effectiveness of antibiotic drug regimens being tested to treat tuberculosis (TB) patients, according to researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. With multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) on the rise worldwide, new biomarkers are needed to determine whether a particular TB ...

El Niño's 'remote control' on hurricanes in the Northeastern Pacific

El Niños remote control on hurricanes in the Northeastern Pacific
2014-12-04
El Niño, the abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, is a well-studied tropical climate phenomenon that occurs every few years. It has major impacts on society and Earth's climate - inducing intense droughts and floods in multiple regions of the globe. Further, scientists have observed that El Niño greatly influences the yearly variations of tropical cyclones (a general term which includes hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones) in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. However, there is a mismatch in both timing and location between this climate ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Bubbles are key to new surface coating method for lightweight magnesium alloys

Carbon stable isotope values yield different dietary associations with added sugars in children compared to adults

Scientists discover 230 new giant viruses that shape ocean life and health

Hurricanes create powerful changes deep in the ocean, study reveals

Genetic link found between iron deficiency and Crohn’s disease

Biologists target lifecycle of deadly parasite

nTIDE June 2025 Jobs Report: Employment of people with disabilities holds steady in the face of uncertainty

Throughput computing enables astronomers to use AI to decode iconic black holes

Why some kids respond better to myopia lenses? Genes might hold the answer

Kelp forest collapse alters food web and energy dynamics in the Gulf of Maine

Improving T cell responses to vaccines

Nurses speak out: fixing care for disadvantaged patients

Fecal transplants: Promising treatment or potential health risk?

US workers’ self-reported mental health outcomes by industry and occupation

Support for care economy policies by political affiliation and caregiving responsibilities

Mailed self-collection HPV tests boost cervical cancer screening rates

AMS announces 1,000 broadcast meteorologists certified

Many Americans unaware high blood pressure usually has no noticeable symptoms

IEEE study describes polymer waveguides for reliable, high-capacity optical communication

Motor protein myosin XI is crucial for active boron uptake in plants

Ultra-selective aptamers give viruses a taste of their own medicine

How the brain distinguishes between ambiguous hypotheses

New AI reimagines infectious disease forecasting

Scientific community urges greater action against the silent rise of liver diseases

Tiny but mighty: sophisticated next-gen transistors hold great promise

World's first practical surface-emitting laser for optical fiber communications developed: advancing miniaturization, energy efficiency, and cost reduction of light sources

Statins may reduce risk of death by 39% for patients with life-threatening sepsis

Paradigm shift: Chinese scientists transform "dispensable" spleen into universal regenerative hub

Medieval murder: Records suggest vengeful noblewoman had priest assassinated in 688-year-old cold case

Desert dust forming air pollution, new study reveals

[Press-News.org] 3-D printed heart could reduce heart surgeries in children
Doctors can perfect procedures on a model before the intervention