Organ replicas are used to simulate anatomical characteristics and/or mechanical functions associated with an in vivo organ of a human or an animal. Organ replicas manufactured using an additive manufacturing system can simulate a variety of in vivo conditions corresponding to the organ to be simulated or replicated for a specific patient.
According to one aspect, the disclosure relates to an echogenic organ replica. The echogenic organ replica includes a lower acoustic impedance material and at least one higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material. At different locations of the echogenic organ replica, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material with material distributions that vary in three dimensions through the organ replica resulting in an organ replica whose echogenicity varies in three dimensions to replicate the three-dimensional variation of echogenicity associated with corresponding in vivo organ tissue.
In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material includes a first higher acoustic impedance material and a second higher acoustic impedance material, the second higher acoustic impedance material has a different elasticity than the first higher acoustic impedance material. In some implementations, the arrangement of the first higher acoustic impedance material and the second higher acoustic impedance material is such that the echogenic organ replica has, across its surface, substantially similar elasticity of corresponding locations of the in vivo organ tissue replicated by the echogenic organ replica in view of one or more organs surrounding the in vivo organ tissue.
In some implementations the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material as a plurality of microbeads distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations the diameter (or smallest dimension if not spherical) of the microbeads is between 0.01 mm and 1.0 mm. In some implementations the amount of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material at a first location varies from the amount of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material at a second location.
In some implementations, the higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the at least one lower acoustic impedance material such that the higher acoustic impedance material forms a lattice structure at the one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica. In some implementations, the lattice structure at a first location has a first pitch resulting in a first echogenicity and the lattice structure at a second location has a second pitch resulting in a second echogenicity. In some implementations, the lower acoustic impedance material includes a non-polymerized material including at least one of water, a gel, an ion, or a bio-molecule.
In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material such that the resulting spatial density of higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material ranges from about 0.1% to 10.0% of the volume of the lower acoustic impedance material at the one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica. In some implementations, the higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material such that the spatial density of higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material at a first location ranges from about 1.0% to 3.0% and the spatial density of higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material at a second location is greater than 3.0%.
In some implementations, the lower acoustic impedance material and the at least one higher acoustic impedance material include 3D printed materials. In some implementations, the in vivo organ tissue includes organ tissue of one or more human or animal organs including a heart, a lung, a stomach, a urinary bladder, a bone, a lymph node, a larynx, a pharynx, vasculature, a spinal column, an intestine, a colon, a rectum, or an eye.
According to another aspect, the disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing an echogenic organ replica. The method includes obtaining medical image data of an organ within a specific patient. The method further includes receiving, by an additive manufacturing system, one or more data files specifying a configuration of one or more materials to be deposited by the additive manufacturing system. The method further includes forming, by the additive manufacturing system, the echogenic organ replica by dispensing, based on the received one or more data files, at least one higher acoustic impedance material distributed within a lower acoustic impedance material. At different locations of the echogenic organ replica, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material with material distributions that vary in three dimensions through the organ replica and resulting in an organ replica whose echogenicity varies in three dimensions to replicate the three-dimensional variation of echogenicity associated with corresponding in vivo organ tissue.
In some implementations, one material of the at least one higher acoustic impedance material has a first elasticity and another material of the at least one higher acoustic impedance materials has a second elasticity different than the first elasticity. In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material as a plurality of microbeads distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations, the diameter (or smallest dimension if not spherical) of the microbeads is between 0.01 mm and 1.0 mm. In some implementations, the amount of the at least one higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material at a first location varies from the amount of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material at a second location.
In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material such that the at least one higher acoustic impedance material forms a lattice structure at the one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica. In some implementations, the lattice structure at a first location has a first pitch resulting in a first echogenicity at the first location and the lattice structure at a second location has a second pitch resulting in a second echogenicity at the second location. In some implementations, the lower acoustic impedance material includes a non-polymerized material including at least one of water, a gel, an ion, or a bio-molecule.
In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material such that the resulting spatial density of at least one higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material ranges from about 0.1% to 10.0% of the volume of the lower acoustic impedance material at one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica. In some implementations, the at least one higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material such that the spatial density of the at least one higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material at a first location ranges from about 1.0% to 3.0% and the spatial density of the at least one higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material at a second location is greater than 3.0%.
In some implementations, the local mechanical properties of the at least one higher impedance material and the lower acoustic impedance material vary to replicate mechanical feedback exerted on the organ being replicated by one or more organ tissues surrounding the in vivo organ tissue. In some implementations, the one or more organ tissues surrounding the organ being replicated, for which mechanical feedback is exerted on the organ, includes at least one of bones or joints.
In some implementations, the organ includes a part of a larger organ. In some implementations, the organ includes an artery. In some implementations, the organ includes a heart, a lung, a stomach, a urinary bladder, a bone, a lymph node, a larynx, a pharynx, muscle vasculature, a spinal column, an intestine, a colon, a rectum, or an eye.
The above and related objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will be more fully understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the following figures, wherein:
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has recently evolved as a rapid prototyping process to construct a variety of three dimensional objects by depositing, joining, or solidifying materials under computer-aided control. Additive manufacturing describes a broader approach to 3D printing which is typically associated with industrial scale production of complex, multi-component objects such as clocks, medical devices, turbine engine parts, and automotive components. Additive manufacturing systems generate three dimensional objects by successively adding or depositing one or more materials in multiple layers based on digital model data representing the object to be generated. Advancements in additive manufacturing technologies and the materials used within additive manufacturing systems have enabled further applications in the medical field including tissue and organ fabrication, hearing aid manufacture, customization of prosthetics and implants, anatomical organ modeling, drug delivery mechanism research, and tissue generation.
Organ replicas, also known as organ models or organ simulation devices, may be manufactured using an additive manufacturing system with a variety of materials and methods to create a physical object on which medical practitioners can conduct simulated experimental, diagnostic or clinical tasks. For example, organ replicas can enable medical practitioners to practice a particular procedure or therapeutic treatment such as catheter angiography, transesophageal echocardiograms, or organ and joint implantation procedures in advance of performing the procedure on a living human or animal patient. Practicing these kinds of procedures on an organ model including generic anatomical features or on a cadaver organ provides the medical practitioner with a limited understanding of the unique anatomical variances or anomalies that may be present in a specific patient and thus increases the risk and complexity of performing the procedure on the specific patient.
Advances in medical imaging and materials technologies have made it possible to utilize additive manufacturing systems to generate an organ replica possessing the unique anatomic and structural features of a specific patient's organ. However, it is difficult to create an organ replica such that the materials of the organ replica accurately simulate or correspond to the in vivo properties of the organ tissue being replicated. For example, in vivo organ tissue properties such as elasticity, permeability, echogenicity, and density are difficult to replicate in organ replicas created using additive manufacturing systems.
In addition, many minimally invasive medical procedures are often performed using ultrasound imaging so that a medical practitioner may view and be guided by ultrasound imagery to safely perform the particular treatment or procedure. An echogenic organ replica allows the medical practitioner to practice the specific procedure on an echogenically and anatomically accurate model of the patient's organ or organ tissue using the same ultrasound imaging methodology and equipment as would be used in an actual procedure on the patient, thereby replicating not only the patient's specific organ but also replicating the clinical treatment environment and methods that would be used during the specific procedure. A novel solution is required to generate echogenic organ replicas using additive manufacturing systems and materials based on medical imaging data obtained from a variety of imaging modalities.
A solution to this problem, presented herein, includes an echogenic organ replica and methods of manufacturing the echogenic organ replica using an additive manufacturing system and a plurality of materials. An additive manufacturing system enables the echogenic organ replica to be generated using a variety of materials such that the resulting echogenic organ replica possesses the anatomical characteristics, echogenic and/or mechanical properties associated with the in vivo organ or organ tissue being simulated or replicated for a specific patient. The echogenic organ replica may be formed such that the plurality of materials is deposited in one or more material layers. Each material layer may include one or more materials of differing acoustic impedance. The placement of materials of differing acoustic impedance adjacent to one another results in an acoustic discontinuity, which leads to a change in echogenicity. At one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica, the plurality of materials may be deposited in such a manner as to simulate the echogenicity of the corresponding organ tissue being replicated in three-dimensions.
Echogenicity refers to the ability of a material or an organ or organ tissue to reflect ultrasound energy. Higher echogenicity is a result of increased reflection of ultrasound energy by the material, organ or organ tissue. A material, organ, or organ tissue may be described as hyper-echogenic when exhibiting increased reflection of ultrasound energy. Lower echogenicity results from decreased reflection (and increased transmission) of ultrasound energy by a material, organ, or organ tissue. A material, organ, or organ tissue may be described as hypo-echogenic when exhibiting decreased reflection (or increased transmission) of ultrasound energy.
Although echogenicity is a relative intensity property and is not defined by a strict standard, the following definitions are generally accepted within the field of medical imaging. A hypo-echogenic material is generally considered to be a material which produces a decreased response (or a decreased sound echo) when ultrasounds energy is applied to the material. When viewed using ultrasound imaging, the hypo-echogenic material is represented as a darker color. Hypo-echogenic materials transmit and/or diffuse the applied ultrasound energy and do not reflect or return the applied ultrasound energy. In contrast, a hyper-echogenic material is generally considered to be a material which produces an increased response or increased sound echo when ultrasound energy is applied to the material. When viewed using ultrasound imaging, the hyper-echogenic material is represented as a lighter color. Hyper-echogenic materials reflect the applied ultrasound energy and do not diffuse (or diffuse to a lesser extent) applied ultrasound energy. An anechogenic material is a material which produces no response to applied ultrasound energy. When viewed using ultrasound energy, the anoechogenic material will appear completely black as all of the applied ultrasound energy is transmitted completely through the anechogenic material. Although the descriptions of echogenicity provided herein are made in reference to materials, the same descriptions of echogenicity can be applied to organs, organ tissues, or portions of an organ tissues within human or animal bodies.
The plurality of materials may include a higher acoustic impedance materials and lower acoustic impedance materials.
The plurality of materials may also include a variety of material mixtures in which specified amounts of higher acoustic impedance material are distributed, suspended, or encapsulated within amounts of lower acoustic impedance material (or vice versa). In some implementations, the material mixtures may include varying proportions of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material in order to achieve a predetermined spatial density of higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations, the material mixtures may include varying proportions of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material in order to achieve a predetermined echogenicity at one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica. The higher acoustic impedance material may be distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material as a suspension. For example, the higher acoustic impedance material may be distributed as a plurality of microbeads or microfibers that are suspended within the lower acoustic impedance material. The microbeads may be spherical, ovoid, or rectangular, or have any other regular or irregular shape. The density of the higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material may range from 0% for highly hypo-echogenic regions of a replicated organ or organ tissue to 10% or more for more hyper-echogenic regions of a replicated organ. Spatial echogencity gradients can be achieved in three dimensions by depositing material of increasing or decreasing density of higher acoustic impedance material across a region of a replicated tissue or organ.
In some implementations, the echogenicity of replicated organ tissue can be varied by use of different combinations of materials in addition to or instead of varying the density of higher acoustic impedance materials in a suspension. For example, for regions of lower echogenicity, the difference in acoustic impedance between the lower acoustic impedance material and the higher acoustic impedance material suspended or distributed in the lower acoustic material may be less than the differences in acoustic impedances of the materials used in regions of greater echogenicity. Accordingly, in various implementations, the differences in acoustic impedance between the lower acoustic impedance material and the higher acoustic impedance material may range from as little as about 10% to as much as 25 times. For example, the higher acoustic impedance material may have an acoustic impedance which is 10% higher, 100% higher, 500% higher, 1000% higher or even 2500% higher than the acoustic impedance of the lower acoustic impedance material. Greater differences in acoustic impedance result in increased echogenicity.
In some implementations, the echogenic organ replica includes larger structures of higher acoustic impedance material embedded in and completely surrounded by lower acoustic impedance material. In some implementations, the higher acoustic impedance material is embedded within the lower acoustic impedance material to form a lattice or matrix structure. The lattice structure may be formed as a variety of material arrangements of materials of different acoustic impedances so that the echogenicity in one or more locations varies in order to replicate the varying echogenicity of a region of organ tissue for the organ being replicated. This variation can occur in three dimensions, both across a surface of a particular organ tissue, but also through the thickness of the organ tissue. In some implementations, this variation includes a variation in the pitch of the lattice structure. In some implementations, the lattice structure may provide structural support at one or more locations of the echogenic organ replica.
In some implementations, the higher acoustic impedance material is distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material to create one or more discrete acoustic discontinuities based on the acoustic properties of in vivo organ or organ tissue to be replicated. In this way, a wide range of echogenic characteristics may be recreated at one or more locations in the echogenic organ replica. For example, a heart may have tissue portions that are more highly echogenic and thereby reflect more ultrasound energy. Other portions of the heart tissue may be less echogenic and reflect ultrasound energy poorly, thereby allowing more of the ultrasound energy to be transmitted through those portions of the heart. Still other portions of the heart are filled with blood, which is almost completely hypo-echogenic. The discrete acoustic discontinuities occur at interfaces of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within the lower acoustic impedance material to replicate three or more different levels of echogenicity apparent when examining a heart with ultrasound. While an example of a heart is described above, the echogenic organ replica may also be a replica of a lung, a stomach, a urinary bladder, a bone, a lymph node, a larynx, a pharynx, vasculature, a spinal column, an intestine, a colon, a rectum, an auditory canal or an eye.
In some implementations, the echogenic organ replica may include a plurality of materials arranged within the echogenic organ replica such that the resulting elasticity of the echogenic organ replica surface is substantially similar to corresponding locations of the in vivo organ or organ tissue being replicated. In some implementations, the resulting elasticity is based on one or more organs surrounding the in vivo organ or organ tissue being replicated. The surrounding organs may influence the elasticity of an in vivo organ. For example, portions of an artery that are longitudinally oriented along the length of a bone may have less elasticity at one or more locations in proximity to the bone because the artery is confined by the presence of the rigid bone structure. In other locations, where the artery is oriented proximal to a less rigid structure such as a membrane, muscle, fatty tissue, or a body cavity, the artery may have more elasticity.
As shown in
The one or more data files 120 include patient specific data corresponding to the organ or organ tissue imaged using either the CT scanner 105 and/or the ultrasound imaging device 110. The one or more data files 120 may be generated from the medical image data 115 by processing the medical image data. For example, the processing may include converting the medical image data 115 from a common file format used in medical imaging procedures, such as the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) file format, into one or more data files formatted in the stereolithography (STL) or other file format (e.g., OBJ, PLY, X3G, or FBX) suitable for use in an additive manufacturing system. In some implementations, the image data can be converted into a stack of binary image formats, such as Bitmap or RAW, for use in other additive manufacturing systems.
As shown in
The echogenic organ replica 130 is a 3D model of a specific patient's organ, a heart, as shown in
As depicted in
It should be noted that each replica tissue layer 205 may be composed of portions of multiple deposition layers. As used herein, a deposition layer refers to a single layer of material deposited by an additive manufacturing device across a common elevation from the base of printed object. Such deposition layers may not correspond to a single structural material layer. For example, if the organ replica 200 were fabricated from the bottom of the figure to the top in the orientation shown in
Each replica tissue layer 205 may be formed by the additive manufacturing system 125 based on processing the one or more received data files 120 shown in
For example, as shown in
As further shown in
As shown in
In some implementations, particularly in implementations in which tissue replica layers are formed from suspensions of higher acoustic impedance materials in lower acoustic impedance materials, adjacent tissue replica layers may be separated by a thin (on the order one hundred to three hundred microns thick) layer of higher acoustic impedance material. Such material tends to be stronger, more mechanically stable, and not susceptible to removal during cleaning procedures. As a result, such layers help maintain the structural integrity of such organ replicas.
As shown in
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As shown in diagram 300B-1 of
As shown in diagram 300B-2 a material arrangement including a plurality of materials arranged in three layers is shown. Similar to diagram 300B-1, the material arrangement shown in diagram 300B-2, layers A and C include solely lower acoustic impedance material. However, in diagram 300B-2 includes five volumes of higher acoustic impedance material distributed within or encapsulated by the lower acoustic impedance material. The five continuous volumes form an ovoid microbead within the volume of lower acoustic impedance material. Increasing the amount or concentration of higher acoustic impedance distributed within lower acoustic impedance material results in a greater degree of acoustic reflection of the applied acoustic or ultrasound energy through the combination of materials formed by the three layers due to the increased area of acoustic impedance discontinuities (i.e., the larger amount of area that constitutes an interface between materials of different acoustic impedances).
The material arrangement 300B-2 shown in
The anisotropy exhibited by the arrangement 300B-2 results from the volume of higher acoustic impedance material being only one unit thick vertically on the page, while being five units thick horizontally on the page. Accordingly, as shown, with the ultrasound transducer positioned above the material arrangement 300B-2, the ultrasound wave front encounters a structure of high acoustic impedance material that is five volumes across. If the placement of the ultrasound transducer were rotated about the arrangement 300B-2 by 90° so that ultrasound energy were transmitted into the arrangement 300B-2 from the side rather than from the top, the ultrasound response would be significantly less pronounced, as the wave front would encounter a high acoustic impedance structure only one unit across. That is, more acoustic energy would be able to pass through the material arrangement from the side than from the top or bottom.
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The lattice structure in
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At stage 610, medical image data of an organ within a specific patient is obtained. The medical image data of the organ may be obtained using common medical imaging modalities such as X-ray radiography, X-ray rotational angiography, MRI, CT scanning, ultrasound imaging (2D or 3D), or nuclear medicine functional imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography. For example, as shown in
At stage 620, the medical image data 115 is processed to generate one or more data files 120 including a volumetric model of the organ. The medical image data 115 is processed to generate a volumetric model of the specific organ to be replicated as the echogenic organ replica 130. The volumetric model is generated by converting the medical image data 115 into a three dimensional data model describing the anatomic characteristics of the organ to be replicated. The anatomic characteristics may include various linear dimensions, volume dimensions, thicknesses, as well as other characteristics of the organ being replicated, such as tissue echogenicity. Such characteristics can be derived directly from the medical imaging data 115 collected (e.g., from ultrasound images), or indirectly by reference to one or more databases or other electronic data sources of anatomical knowledge that stores reference information about representative tissue characteristics of various tissues in the body. The volumetric model includes a three dimensional set of nodes which define a plurality of elementary volumetric elements or voxels partitioning a space region (e.g., the space encompassed by the organ or portions of the organ) modeled by the volumetric model. The elementary volumetric elements may be defined as shapes of a tetrahedron, a pyramid, a triangular prism, a hexahedron, a sphere, or an ovoid. The volumetric model may be generated from a three dimensional surface mesh of the organ to be replicated which captured in the medical image data 115. In some implementations, the volumetric model may be generated by performing volumetric model generation on the surface mesh. In some implementations, the volumetric model is generated by performing finite-element volumetric model generation on the medical image data 115. In some implementations, the volumetric model is further processed to generate a deformed volumetric model of the organ to be replicated. In these implementations, the deformed volumetric model replicates the loads and constraints imposed on the in vivo organ tissue of a specific patient by one or more organ tissues surrounding the specific patient's in vivo organ tissue.
Defining the three dimensional set of nodes and the elementary volumetric elements or voxels associated with the imaged organ allows a plurality of materials to be assigned to each voxel so that the additive manufacturing system 125 may form the echogenic organ replica 130 such that the echogenic properties of the in vivo organ tissue at one or more locations are accurately replicated in the corresponding locations of the echogenic organ replica 130. The assigned materials may include materials of differing acoustic impedance values, such as higher acoustic impedance materials, lower acoustic impedance material, or mixtures or suspensions of materials having different acoustic impedances.
Material assignment is performed using a cost function to minimize the error between the desired echogenic properties (determined based on the medical image data 115 or from electronic databases or data sources storing representative tissue characteristic data) and the resulting echogenic properties of the combination of one or more of the materials selected for deposition in a location corresponding to a given voxel or cluster of voxels of the volumetric model. In some embodiments, the cost function may include additional cost functions, for example a cost function to minimize the error associated with the elastic material properties or other mechanical material properties of the organ being replicated. In these embodiments, material assignment may be achieved by solving the cost function using a joint search to minimize the sum of the errors between the mechanical material properties and the echogenicity material properties. In some implementations, weights may be applied to the respective constituent cost functions based on the desired application. For example, it may be desirable to apply a higher weight to the cost function associated with mechanical material properties when accurately simulating echogenicity in the organ replica 130 is less important. Alternatively, it may be important to weight the cost function associated with echogenic material properties higher in situations where it is critical to accurately simulate echogenicity in the organ replica 130. After performing a joint search as described above, a final volumetric model may be generated.
In some implementations, as an alternative to a joint search method, a predetermined number of best fitting echogenic property models could be evaluated using a mechanical property cost function to select an overall best fitting model. Additionally, or alternatively, a predetermine number of best fitting mechanical property models could be evaluated using an echogenicity cost function to identify an overall best fitting model. In some implementations, the cost function may include constraints to prevent aspects of the volumetric model from being assigned specific materials. For example, a constraint could be implemented to require lower acoustic impedance materials formed from sacrificial material to be fully encapsulated within one or more higher acoustic impedance materials.
The object materials to be assigned to each voxel that were determined as a result of applying the cost function(s) may be selected from a database of object materials. In some implementations, a particular material may be selected based on the results of minimizing a cost function for a given region (e.g., a cluster) or plurality of elementary volumetric elements of the volumetric model.
As a result of processing the medical image data 115 of the specific patient's organ one or more data files 120 as shown in
At stage 630, the method further includes receiving one or more data files 120 specifying a configuration of one or more materials to be deposited by an additive manufacturing system 125. The one or more data files 120 may define an arrangement or configuration of a plurality of echogenic and non-echogenic materials (or higher acoustic impedance and lower acoustic impedance materials) to be deposited by the additive manufacturing system 125 based on the processing performed in stage 620. For example, based on the plurality of materials assigned to each voxel of the volumetric model included in the one or more data files 120, the additive manufacturing system 125 may determine the arrangement of one or more materials to be deposited in one or more layers to form the organ replica 130.
At stage 640, the additive manufacturing system 125 forms the echogenic organ replica 130 by dispensing at least one material having lower acoustic impedance properties and a second material having higher acoustic impedance properties. The additive manufacturing system 125 dispenses the plurality of materials to form the echogenic organ replica 130. The plurality of materials includes at least one lower acoustic impedance material and a higher acoustic impedance material. The two materials may be dispensed simultaneously as a suspension of the higher acoustic impedance material within the lower acoustic impedance material, or as separate depositions of higher acoustic impedance material and lower acoustic impedance materials. Based on the configuration of materials assigned to each voxel of the volumetric model included in the one or more data files 120, the additive manufacturing system 125 dispenses the appropriate material determined for a given elementary volumetric element defined in the volumetric model of the organ to be replicated. For example, the additive manufacturing system 125 dispenses amounts of the at least one hypo-echogenic materials at locations in the echogenic organ replica 130 which map or correspond to the same locations in the volumetric model that were determined to be less echogenic areas or regions based on the medical image data 115 or a an electronic tissue characteristic data source. Similarly, hyper-echogenic materials (e.g., a suspension with a higher density of high acoustic impedance material) may be dispensed by the additive manufacturing system 125 at locations in the echogenic organ replica 130 which correspond to the same locations in the volumetric model that were determined to be more echogenic.
There need not be a one-to-one correspondence between a voxel and a given material deposition. A voxel is a logical construct which can be processed by an additive manufacturing device to determine an appropriate set of independent material depositions. For example, some volumetric models may be generated with lower resolution than a print-resolution of a 3D printer used to print the echogenic organ replica 130. In such situations, the 3D printer may make multiple deposits of material to generate a single voxel. For example, in some implementations, each voxel may correspond to a 3×3×3, 4×4×4, 5×5×5, or other sized cuboid of material depositions. In other implementations, voxels may translate into ovoid or other shaped depositions, rather than cuboid depositions. The 3D printer used to fabricate the echogenic organ replica 130 may translate an echogencity value assigned to each voxel to an appropriate pattern of material depositions within a given a corresponding cuboid or ovoid deposition. In other implementations, each voxel corresponds to a single material deposition, which may have a spherical, ovoid, rectangular or other regular or irregular shape depending on the equipment used to make the deposition. The at least one material having lower acoustic impedance properties and the second material having higher acoustic impedance properties may be dispensed by the additive manufacturing system 125 using casting, 3D printing, mechanical linkages of disparate materials and material deposition manufacturing. A variety of additive manufacturing processes may be utilized by the additive manufacturing system 125 to form the echogenic organ replica 130 including binder jetting, directed energy deposition, material jetting, power bed fusion, fused deposition modeling, laser sintering, stereolithography, photopolymerization, and continuous liquid interface production. In some implementations, 3D printers using PolyJet Matrix™ technology (Stratasys, Ltd., Eden Prairie, Minn.) may be used to simultaneously dispense a plurality of materials having different elastic and acoustic impedance properties to form an echogenic organ replica 130 with varying elastic and echogenic properties at one or more locations. In some implementations, the at least one material having higher acoustic impedance properties includes a polymerized material, such as PolyJet material having a polymerized density of 1.18-1.21 g/cm3. In some implementations, the lower acoustic impedance includes a hydrogel with acoustic properties similar to water. In some implementations, the lower acoustic impedance material includes a non-polymerized material such as water, a gel, an ion, or a bio-molecule.
In broad overview, the computing system 700 includes at least one input device 716, and at least one output device 714. The computing system 700 further includes at least one client computing device 710. The client computing device 710 includes a processor 712 for performing actions in accordance with instructions and one or more memory devices 720 for storing instructions and data. The one or more memory devices 720 are further configured to include application 722. The one or more processors 712 are in communication, via a communication module 718, with at least one network 750.
In more detail, the processor 712 may be any logic circuitry that processes instructions, e.g., instructions fetched from the memory 720. In many embodiments, the processor 712 is a microprocessor unit or special purpose processor. The client computing device 710 may be based on any processor, or set of processors, capable of operating as described herein to perform the methods described in relation to
The memory 720 may be any device suitable for storing computer readable data. The memory 720 may be a device with fixed storage or a device for reading removable storage media. Examples include all forms of non-volatile memory, media and memory devices, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, SDRAM, and flash memory devices), magnetic disks, magneto optical disks, and optical discs (e.g., CD ROM, DVD-ROM, and Blu-ray® discs).
The memory 720 also includes application 722 for controlling the method shown in
Application 722 as discussed herein does not necessarily correspond to a file in a file system. Application 722 can be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store one or more modules, subprograms, or portions of code). Application 722 can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network, such as in a cloud-computing environment. The processes and logic flows described in this specification can be performed by one or more programmable processors executing one or more applications 722 to perform functions by operating on input data and generating output.
The communications module 718 manages data exchanges via a network interface card (not shown—also referred to as network interface driver). The communication module 718 handles the physical and data link layers of the OSI model for network communication. In some implementations, some of the network interface driver controller's tasks are handled by the processor 712. In some implementations, the communications module 718 is part of the processor 712. In some implementations, a client computing device 710 has multiple communications modules 718. The network interface ports configured in the network interface card (not shown) are connection points for physical network links. In some implementations, the communications module 718 supports wireless network connections and an interface port associated with the network interface card is a wireless receiver/transmitter. Generally, a client computing device 710 exchanges data with other network devices 750 via physical or wireless links that interface with network interface driver ports configured in the network interface card. In some implementations, the communications module 718 implements a network protocol such as Ethernet.
The computing system 700 also includes input device 716 and output device 714. For example, a client computing device 710 may include an interface (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) interface) for connecting input devices 716 (e.g., a keyboard, microphone, mouse, or other pointing device), output devices 714 (e.g., video display, speaker, or printer), or additional memory devices (e.g., portable flash drive or external media drive). In some implementations, the input device 716 may include a medical imaging system such as the CT scanner 105 or ultrasound imaging device 110 shown in
Implementations of the subject matter and the operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software embodied on a tangible medium, firmware, or hardware, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or in combinations of one or more of them. Implementations of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented as one or more computer programs embodied on a tangible medium, i.e., one or more modules of computer program instructions, encoded on one or more computer storage media for execution by, or to control the operation of, a data processing apparatus. A computer storage medium can be, or be included in, a computer-readable storage device, a computer-readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memory array or device, or a combination of one or more of them. The computer storage medium can also be, or be included in, one or more separate components or media (e.g., multiple CDs, disks, or other storage devices). The computer storage medium may be tangible and non-transitory.
The operations described in this specification can be implemented as operations performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored on one or more computer-readable storage devices or received from other sources. The operations may be executed within the native environment of the data processing apparatus or within one or more virtual machines or containers hosted by the data processing apparatus.
While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any inventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular implementations of particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate implementations can also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation can also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.
Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the implementations described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.
References to “or” may be construed as inclusive so that any terms described using “or” may indicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms. The labels “first,” “second,” “third,” and so forth are not necessarily meant to indicate an ordering and are generally used merely to distinguish between like or similar items or elements.
Various modifications to the implementations described in this disclosure may be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other implementations without departing from the spirit or scope of this disclosure. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to the implementations shown herein, but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with this disclosure, the principles and the novel features disclosed herein.
The present application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 62/674,585, filed on May 21, 2018, the entire contents or which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62674585 | May 2018 | US |