Yalman Alain, Jafari Arman, Léger Étienne, Mastroianni Michael-Anthony, Teimouri Kowsar, Savoji Houman, Collins D Louis, Kadem Lyes, Xiao Yiming
Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Med Phys. 2025 Feb;52(2):742-749. doi: 10.1002/mp.17518. Epub 2024 Nov 15.
Physical vascular phantoms are instrumental in studying intracranial aneurysms and testing relevant imaging tools and training systems to provide improved clinical care. Current vascular phantom production methods have major limitations in capturing the biophysical and morphological characteristics of intracranial aneurysms with good fidelity and multi-modal imaging capacity. With stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing technology becoming more accessible, newer flexible and transparent printing materials with higher precision controls open the door for improving the efficiency and quality of producing anthropomorphic vascular phantoms but have rarely been explored for the application.
This technical note intends to report the feasibility of using SLA 3D printing technology to manufacture flexible intracranial aneurysm phantoms with similar scales to the real anatomy, as well as their capacity for multi-modal flow imaging and analysis, including ultrasound flow imaging, high-speed filming, and particle image velocimetry analysis.
We designed and 3D-printed two intracranial aneurysm phantoms with an SLA 3D printer using Formlabs Elastic 50A resin. By using a micropump to introduce cyclical flows in the phantoms, we first employed conventional Doppler and vector flow ultrasonography to observe and measure different fluidic properties. Then, a high-speed camera was used to record particles flowing within the phantom, and we further conducted a particle image velocimetry analysis, including the distribution of mean 2D velocity vectors, average velocity magnitudes, and the mean vorticity fields in the phantom for the high-speed imaging data.
We successfully 3D-printed flexible intracranial aneurysm phantoms with similar dimensions to the real anatomy. Additionally, we validated the phantoms' ability to allow visualization, measurement, and analysis of flow dynamics based on both real-time ultrasound and optical imaging.
Our proof-of-concept study illustrates that SLA 3D printing using commercial elastic resins can significantly contribute towards facilitating the fabrication of flexible intracranial aneurysms phantoms for training, research, and preoperative planning.
物理血管模型有助于研究颅内动脉瘤，并测试相关成像工具和训练系统，以提供更好的临床护理。目前的血管模型制作方法在以高保真度和多模态成像能力捕捉颅内动脉瘤的生物物理和形态特征方面存在重大局限性。随着立体光刻（SLA）3D打印技术越来越容易获得，具有更高精度控制的新型柔性透明打印材料为提高制作拟人化血管模型的效率和质量打开了大门，但在该应用方面很少有人探索。
本技术说明旨在报告使用SLA 3D打印技术制造与真实解剖结构比例相似的柔性颅内动脉瘤模型的可行性，以及它们进行多模态血流成像和分析的能力，包括超声血流成像、高速拍摄和粒子图像测速分析。
我们使用Formlabs Elastic 50A树脂，通过SLA 3D打印机设计并3D打印了两个颅内动脉瘤模型。通过使用微型泵在模型中引入周期性流动，我们首先采用传统的多普勒和矢量流超声来观察和测量不同的流体特性。然后，使用高速摄像机记录模型内流动的粒子，并对高速成像数据进一步进行粒子图像测速分析，包括模型中二维平均速度矢量的分布、平均速度大小和平均涡度场。
我们成功地3D打印出了与真实解剖结构尺寸相似的柔性颅内动脉瘤模型。此外，我们验证了这些模型基于实时超声和光学成像实现血流动力学可视化、测量和分析的能力。
我们的概念验证研究表明，使用商用弹性树脂的SLA 3D打印可以显著有助于制造用于训练、研究和术前规划的柔性颅内动脉瘤模型。
