While the heart is one of the most critical organs in the body, it is also subject to many threats. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the foremost cause of death globally, with nearly 18 million losing their lives each year. Unfortunately, since each heart differs from the next, broad solutions still require a certain amount of customization.
Enter engineers at MIThave come up with a method to enable physicians to assist patients in a way specific to each heart.
The MIT team is using 3D printing to create replica hearts made of soft, flexible materials that mimic the specific way a patient’s ticker pumps. Using medical imaging, the measurements are defined, and the team can print an exact double of the heart and if needed, the aorta. Constructed of a polymer-based ink that, the research team says after curing, “can squeeze and stretch, similarly to a real beating heart.”
Using pneumatic systems, the researchers also developed a process that can imitate how blood pumps through the heart and even view how it is being constricted. With the 365-degree view, medical professionals hope to someday be able to apply fixes — such as valves — to the printed heart, allowing them to test out different placements to see what works and fits the best for each specific patient.
MIT research team leader and mechanical engineering professor Ellen Roche says this could help drill down to an ideal solution for those with “unique and challenging cardiac geometries.”
And this recreation of human anatomy offers more opportunities outside of patient care. MIT says medical researchers could use the hearts for experimentation, and so could the medical device industry, where the 3D printed version could help them carry out tests.
In the end, it will enhance accuracy and understanding of variability because, as Luca Rosalia, a graduate student in the MIT-Harvard Program in Health Sciences and Technology, says, “all hearts are different.”
