Scientists Build Vascular Network Using Sugar and a 3-D Printer

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Scientists Build Vascular Network Using Sugar and a 3-D Printer

ECR 2012 - SS505/B0372 - Digital Perfusion Phantoms for software validation

Digital perfusion phantoms and their use in perfusion validation.
The researchers showed comparable perfusion maps with totally diffferent definition of artery and vein location. Even completely misplaced locations resulted in an acceptable looking perfusion map using commercial software.
To allow calibration of perfusion software they developed the digital perfusion phantom. They start from the wanted perfusion map and produce the DICOM images that correspond to this map.
The presenter showed that the patterns generated in the simulated, simple DICOM images are not exactly right and very different when comparing different software packages. In an example where they overlapped their simulated map on the anatomical image strange highlighted regions appeared in one software system that should not be there. They also tested some freeware from the web and those packages provided even worse results.
The authors concluded that 'processing DPP perfusion sequence with any perfusion software of choice, and comparing the results to the expected DPP patterns provide a robust and straightforward way to control the quality of perfusion analysis, software, and protocols'

RapidPro 2012 - The role of RM processes in 'digital dentistry'

A presentation by dr. Martin Klare of Dreve ProDiMed GmbH on the use of rapid manufacturing in dentistry. Based on the digital imaging data they design individualized models. Ceramic substructures and/or dental models are reconstructed based on these computerized models. This required development of specialized software to construct these models and to simulate procedures using the computer based on the scanned data. As an example this allows virtual design of dental models based on the digital data, and 3D reconstruction of dental implant models. Results are then used for the rapid manufacturing using dedicated, high precision, dental rapid manufacturing printers.
The software development for the modeling and planning is still very much work in progress and has to be developed further.

RapidPro 2012 - Additive Manufacturing for Dummies

AM - Additive Manufacturing.
Today I went to RapidPro 2012, a conference on rapid prototyping. In medicine this could be beneficial not only for modelling (where it is already used to model bone structures and skulls for preparation of interventions) but also for the, relatively cheap, construction of phantoms.
A presentation by Benjamin Denayer on 'additive manufacturing for dummies' showed that multiple techniques are now available to construct objects using additive manufacturing. They range in the way the model is built and the materials that are used. Also the resolution of the model varies with the different methods, up to 0.02 mm. When we would like to construct phantoms for CT or MR scanning the materials used to build the model are extremely important since they should have material properties that relate to the tissue we want to mimic.
Another challenge is that all systems are relying on CAD (Computer Aided Design) software data resulting in an STL file and not able to directly import DICOM data. The STL format contains a triangulation of the dataset resulting in a surface model of a certain resolution which can be used for the modeling.
Upcoming are the DIY systems that are cheap, open source, and easy to use.