1 UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health , London , UK.
2 Department of Radiology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust , London , UK.
Br J Radiol. 2018 Jul;91(1088):20180306. doi: 10.1259/bjr.20180306. Epub 2018 Jun 14.
Microfocus CT (micro-CT) is an imaging method that provides three-dimensional digital data sets with comparable resolution to light microscopy. Although it has traditionally been used for non-destructive testing in engineering, aerospace industries and in preclinical animal studies, new applications are rapidly becoming available in the clinical setting including post-mortem fetal imaging and pathological specimen analysis. Printing three-dimensional models from imaging data sets for educational purposes is well established in the medical literature, but typically using low resolution (0.7 mm voxel size) data acquired from CT or MR examinations. With higher resolution imaging (voxel sizes below 1 micron, <0.001 mm) at micro-CT, smaller structures can be better characterised, and data sets post-processed to create accurate anatomical models for review and handling. In this review, we provide examples of how three-dimensional printing of micro-CT imaged specimens can provide insight into craniofacial surgical applications, developmental cardiac anatomy, placental imaging, archaeological remains and high-resolution bone imaging. We conclude with other potential future usages of this emerging technique.
微焦点 CT（micro-CT）是一种成像方法，可提供与光学显微镜相当的三维数字数据集。虽然它传统上一直用于工程、航空航天工业和临床前动物研究中的无损检测，但新的应用正在临床环境中迅速出现，包括死后胎儿成像和病理标本分析。从成像数据集打印三维模型用于教育目的在医学文献中已经得到很好的确立，但通常使用从 CT 或 MR 检查获得的低分辨率（0.7 毫米体素大小）数据。微焦点 CT 的高分辨率成像（体素大小低于 1 微米，<0.001 毫米）可以更好地描述较小的结构，并对数据集进行后处理，以创建用于审查和处理的精确解剖模型。在这篇综述中，我们提供了一些示例，说明如何使用微焦点 CT 成像标本的三维打印来深入了解颅面外科应用、发育性心脏解剖、胎盘成像、考古遗迹和高分辨率骨骼成像。我们最后讨论了这项新兴技术的其他潜在用途。
