A customized human heart that functions and appears like the heart of a specific patient may now be 3D printed by engineers.
According to MIT Mechanical Engineering, their mission is to develop realistic models that physicians, scientists, and producers of medical equipment can use to test various heart disease treatments. The heart replicas were developed in Roach's lab.
"The anatomy is substantially different in patients with heart failure," she said. Every heart is different, and patients with heart failure are no exception.
Detailed medical photographs of a person's heart are taken to start the process of making a personalized heart replica. To produce a soft, flexible shell, these photos were then turned into computer models and sent to a 3D printer. Then Roche's team attached sleeves that can inflate and deflate to simulate the contraction of the heart, much like blood pressure cuffs. The results were released in the journal Science Robotics today.
While conventional pumps are frequently inflexible and bulky, "our heart sleeve can mimic a patient's function in a more accurate manner," said Luca Rosalia, a doctoral student in the MIT-Harvard Health Sciences and Technology Program who worked on the robotic heart.
According to Rosalia and Roche, aortic stenosis, which makes the heart work harder to circulate blood throughout the body, could one day be treated with this kind of robotic heart by medical professionals. In the United States, the illness affects 1.5 million people. A synthetic valve is typically implanted after surgery to treat aortic stenosis. These researchers picture a time when medical professionals could first build an exact replica of a patient's heart, test various valve options to determine which one is best for a certain patient, and then implant it.
According to Jon Passeri, head of clinical operations in the echocardiography laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, "3D printing technology has so far left certain holes." "The elasticity of the many tissues involved and the calcification that develops on the valve are very difficult to recreate in a highly exact manner."
Passali called the new technology "fascinating" despite not being engaged in the study of 3D heart replicas.
It's more accurate and appears to be created more quickly, making it appealing for clinical applications, according to Passali. He did warn that before these models are applied in a clinical context, "it might be a while."
He believes it will be at least five to ten years before these robotic hearts are utilized to treat patients directly, while they may be used in the medical device sector and in labs within the next few years.
"The replica heart must be developed, constructed, and tested within 24 or 36 hours in order for the system to be employed therapeutically. As a result, 3D printing technology is continually evolving."