Personalized 3-D printed artificial heart created

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

A personalized 3-D printed artificial heart has been created by scientists.

It beats just like the real thing - enabling doctors to tailor implants for individual patients.

No two organs are alike with size and shape varying from one person to the next.

The robotic device is a soft and flexible replica that can mimic its blood-pumping ability.

Team member Luca Rosalia, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said: "All hearts are different.

"There are massive variations - especially when patients are sick.

"The advantage of our system is that we can recreate not just the form of a patient's heart but also its function in both physiology and disease."

Medical images are converted into a three-dimensional computer model which is 3D printed using a polymer-based ink.

Once cured it can squeeze and stretch - similarly to a real beating heart.

The resulting shell is an exact copy of the actual organ's measurements.

The approach can also be used to print the aorta - the major artery that carries blood out of the heart to the rest of the body.

Fabricated sleeves similar to blood pressure cuffs wrap around them to simulate pumping.

The underside resembles precisely patterned bubble wrap.

Connecting it to a pneumatic system tunes outflowing air to rhythmically inflate the bubbles and contract the heart.

Inflating a separate sleeve surrounding a printed aorta constricts the vessel.

This can mimic a condition called aortic stenosis where the valve narrows - causing the heart to work harder to force blood through the body.

A common treatment is surgically implanting a synthetic valve designed to widen it.

In the future doctors could print a patient's heart and aorta and then implant a variety of devices to see which results in the best function and fit.

The heart replicas could also be used by research labs and the medical device industry as realistic platforms for testing therapies for various types of heart disease.

Co-author Dr. Sophie Wang, a vascular surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, MA, said: "There's a lot of interest in the medical field in using 3D printing technology to accurately recreate patient anatomy for use in pre-procedural planning and training."

The study used medical scans of 15 patients diagnosed with aortic stenosis. Images were converted into a three-dimensional computer model of their left ventricle - the main pumping chamber - and aorta.

For each model heart, the researchers could accurately recreate the same heart-pumping pressures and flows that were previously measured in each respective patient.

Co-author Dr. Ellen Roche, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "Being able to match the patients' flows and pressures was very encouraging.

"We're not only printing the heart's anatomy but also replicating its mechanics and physiology. That's the part we get excited about."

When valves were implanted as they pumped the researchers observed they produced similarly improved flows as seen in patients following their procedures.

Co-author Dr. Christopher Nguyen, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said: "Patients would get their imaging done, which they do anyway, and we would use that to make this system - ideally within the day.

"Once it's up and running clinicians could test different valve types and sizes and see which works best - then use that to implant."

Ultimately the patient-specific replicas could help develop and identify ideal treatments for individuals with unique and challenging cardiac geometries.

Dr. Roche added: "Designing inclusively for a large range of anatomies - and testing interventions across this range - may increase the addressable target population for minimally invasive procedures."

The study was published in the journal Science Robotics.