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Making three-dimensional echocardiography more tangible: a workflow for three-dimensional printing with echocardiographic data

Echo Research & Practice volume 3, pages R57–R64 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a rapidly evolving technology with several potential applications in the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease. Recently, 3D printing (i.e. rapid prototyping) derived from 3D transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) has become possible. Due to the multiple steps involved and the specific equipment required for each step, it might be difficult to start implementing echocardiography-derived 3D printing in a clinical setting. In this review, we provide an overview of this process, including its logistics and organization of tools and materials, 3D TEE image acquisition strategies, data export, format conversion, segmentation, and printing. Generation of patient-specific models of cardiac anatomy from echocardiographic data is a feasible, practical application of 3D printing technology.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Mathew Jolley and the 3DSlicer development team for their assistance with this project.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Azad Mashari MD

  2. Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Azad Mashari MD, Mario Montealegre-Gallegos MD, Lu Yeh MD, Jelliffe Jeganathan MBBS, Robina Matyal MD & Feroze Mahmood MD

  3. Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ziyad Knio BS & Kamal R. Khabbaz MD

  4. Department of Anesthesiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Lu Yeh MD

Authors
  1. Azad Mashari MD
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  2. Mario Montealegre-Gallegos MD
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  3. Ziyad Knio BS
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  4. Lu Yeh MD
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  5. Jelliffe Jeganathan MBBS
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  6. Robina Matyal MD
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  7. Kamal R. Khabbaz MD
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  8. Feroze Mahmood MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mario Montealegre-Gallegos MD.

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Mashari, A., Montealegre-Gallegos, M., Knio, Z. et al. Making three-dimensional echocardiography more tangible: a workflow for three-dimensional printing with echocardiographic data. Echo Res Pract 3, R57–R64 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1530/ERP-16-0036

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1530/ERP-16-0036

Key Words

Echo Research & Practice

ISSN: 2055-0464

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