Blog Written by Hutch Hutchison, Director, Technology & Engineering Matching, FuzeHub
Biomedial applications of Additive Manufacturing are really getting exciting! Doctors at Washington University, in Saint Louis have developed the processes to 3-D Print a conformal “shell” to be custom-formed to a patient’s heart. The soft membrane shell will have both sensors for diagnosis and electrodes for treatment embedded in the additively manufactured instrument.
The patient’s heart is CT-Scanned, with the scan results forming the basis of a 3-D CAD model, which drives the printer to form the membrane. The means of embedding the sensors is not discussed in the article. The results form a custom (to that patient) diagnosis and treatment system, unlike an off-the-shelf version that currently exists, and with more sensors and electrodes.
Read the full article, with lots of graphics, and a cool video showing the shell functioning on a rabbit heart here:
Track and Treat Heart Disease with 3-D Printed device!