Associate Professor Peter Barlis examines a 3-D printed heart artery. The ability to 3-D model the intricacies of the human heart are giving cardiologists incredible new insight into heart disease. Credit: The University of Melbourne
The images, gathered during a routine angiogram, are fed into a supercomputer. Within 24 hours, a model of a person’s artery is 3D printed. This gives cardiologists crucial information about the behaviour of blood flow and the precise structure of the artery from the inside. It also helps them make decisions about the best stent to use. The technique can also detect ‘hot spots’ for plaque which have been difficult to find using traditional techniques.
Heart disease remains the number one killer in Australia, affecting 1 in 6 adults. Every 9 minutes, a person suffers a heart attack. Techniques to predict plaque build up in the heart will be essential to reduce this toll. “No two arteries are shaped the same. We’re all different, with arteries that have different branches and sizes, tapering from larger to smaller”.
“Once this process is streamlined, we can have a patient on the table and an artery 3D printed and modeled to guide the procedure.” Identifying which plaques go on to cause a heart attack remains the ‘holy grail’ of cardiology. “Using a super-high resolution camera, known as optical coherence tomography (OCT), to scan the insides of the heart arteries has made it easier to image cholesterol plaques, but it still isn’t clear which of these plaques will go on to cause heart attacks.
Assoc Prof Barlis introduced OCT to Australia in 2009 and has been refining the technology to benefit cardiac patients since. Clues about dangerous cholesterol plaques lie in certain disturbances in blood flow patterns. “Our work involves using supercomputers to simulate blood flow in the arteries. The goal is to use blood flow patterns and disturbances to potentially predict the future development of high-risk plaques,” Dr Thondapu said.
They now have 2 ARC grants to work with the University’s Engineering School, to find a biocompatible polymer to 3D print heart stents to precisely match a person’s physical makeup, reducing the risk of stent collapse or complications. They are also interested in new polymers that will allow the stent to slowly disintegrate over time and that can deliver drugs directly to the location of the plaque. http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/cardiologists-use-3d-printing-personalise-treatment-heart-disease
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