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Researchers develop new method for 3-D printing custom heart valve models

by Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | July 06, 2017
3D Printing Cardiology Heart Disease
The 3-D-printed heart valve model
A research team from Georgia is leveraging standard medical imaging and 3-D printers to create patient-specific heart valve models with the same physiological qualities as real valves.

More than five million Americans have moderate to severe heart valve disease, according to the Heart Valve Society of America. For those considered too high risk for open-heart surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement is a popular alternative.

The researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Piedmont Heart Institute are aiming to improve the success rate of TAVR by preventing a common complication known as paravalvular leakage. They plan to do that by testing how the prosthetic valves interact with the 3-D printed models.
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A leakage occurs when the prosthetic valve doesn’t fit precisely and blood flows around it rather than through it. The valves are created by different manufacturers and come in a variety of sizes, so it can be difficult for the cardiologist to choose the right one.

Zhen Qian, chief of cardiovascular imaging research at Piedmont Heart Institute, stated that paravalvular leakage is also an important indicator for determining how well a patient will fare in the long-term with their new valve.

The 3-D models were created with a multi-material 3-D printer that gave the team control over design parameters like diameter and curving wavelength of the metamaterial used for printing. This allows them to recreate conditions such as arterial wall stiffness and other unique aspects of the heart.

Other 3-D printing methods using a single material to create human organ models are restricted to the physiological properties of the material used. This new method takes into account the mechanical behavior of the valves.

The team created the heart valve models using CT scans of 18 patients who underwent a valve replacement surgery. The models were outfitted with dozens of radioplaque beads to help measure the displacement of the material that mimicked the tissue.

They then paired the models with the same type and size prosthetic valves that the interventional cardiologists used for each patient’s surgery. In a warm-water testing environment that simulated human body temperature, they implanted the prosthetics inside the models.

Software was used to analyze medical imaging that showed the location of the radioplaque beads taken before and after the experiment. That data was used to determine how the prosthetics interacted with the 3-D printed models.

The team looked for inconsistencies that represented areas where the prosthetic wasn’t sealed against the wall of the valve well enough. The inconsistencies were assigned values, and it was found that patients with higher values experienced a higher degree of leakage after surgery.

The researchers are planning to continue to improve the metamaterial design and 3-D printing method, and test a larger number of patient-specific models. They hope that the 3-D-printed valves will eventually be used as pre-surgery planning tools.

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