multimodal-3d-printing-of-phantoms-to-simulate-biological-tissue

Multimodal 3D Printing of Phantoms to Simulate Biological Tissue

Biomedical optical imaging is playing an important role in diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. However, the accuracy and the reproducibility of ...

University of Science and Technology of China

Preoperative assessment of tissue anatomy and accurate surgical planning is crucial in conjoined twin separation surgery. We developed a new method that combines three-dimensional (3D) printing, assembling, and casting to produce anatomic models of high fidelity for surgical planning. The related anatomic features of the conjoined twins were captured by computed tomography (CT), classified as five organ groups, and reconstructed as five computer models. Among these organ groups, the skeleton was produced by fused deposition modeling (FDM) using acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene. For the other four organ groups, shell molds were prepared by FDM and cast with silica gel to simulate soft tissues, with contrast enhancement pigments added to simulate different CT and visual contrasts. The produced models were assembled, positioned firmly within a 3D printed shell mold simulating the skin boundary, and cast with transparent silica gel. The produced phantom was subject to further CT scan in comparison with that of the patient data for fidelity evaluation. Further data analysis showed that the produced model reassembled the geometric features of the original CT data with an overall mean deviation of less than 2 mm, indicating the clinical potential to use this method for surgical planning in conjoined twin separation surgery.

Freeform fabrication of tissue-simulating phantom for potential use of surgical planning in conjoined twins separation surgery.

Phantoms simulating polarization characteristics of soft tissue play an important role in the development, calibration, and validation of diagnostic polarized imaging devices and of therapeutic strategy, in both laboratory and clinical settings. We propose to fabricate optical phantoms that simulate polarization characteristics of dense fibrous tissues by bonding electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) fibers between polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate with a groove. Increasing the rotational speed of an electrospinning collector helps improve the orientation of the electrospun fibers. The phantoms simulate the polarization characteristics of dense fibrous tissue of collagenous fibroma and healthy skin with high fidelity. Our experiments demonstrate the technical potential of using such phantoms for validation and calibration of polarimetric medical devices.

Article	Year
Freeform fabrication of tissue-simulating phantom for potential use of surgical planning in conjoined twins separation surgery. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 28887492	2017
Simulating orientation and polarization characteristics of dense fibrous tissue by electrostatic spinning of polymeric fibers. Biomedical optics express\| PubMed ID: 30800500	2019

Shuwei Shen

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