Static cardiac phantom; MRI surgical training and personalized intervention

Over the last years, the ability to execute cardiac procedures while the heart is still beating in a minimal-invasive way has improved thanks to the development of methods that make use of catheters that are inserted into the body and maneuvered under image guidance. These minimally invasive procedures offer patients faster recovery times, but the surgeon must deal with additional complexity. To plan and perform these procedures, clinicians rely on preoperative imaging to have a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s anatomy and intraoperative imaging to navigate the catheter or tool to the surgical target and perform treatment. There has been a growing acceptance of the use of patient-specific models as a tool to better examine and comprehend the patient's anatomy, which can aid clinicians in cases of complex tasks develop a preoperative strategy. [1].
Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing technology, plays a key role in this context as has been increasingly used to design and construct physical cardiac phantoms in MRI. By exploiting the excellent imaging properties of MRI and engineering cardiac phantoms to be compatible with MRI, it is possible to create a simple solution to assist medical professionals in the preparation and training of minimally-invasive endovascular cardiac procedures. Patient-specific cardiac phantoms may allow for surgical complications to be accounted for preoperative planning. The information gained by clinicians involved in planning and performing the procedure should lead to shorter procedural times and better outcomes for patients. In addition, the use of MRI avoids clinicians’ exposure to radiation and gives a real-time visualization of catheter path within the phantom cavities [2].

My project aims to contribute to the development of alternative simulation environments for endovascular cardiac intervention in a radiation-free workflow, integrating MRI visible cardiac phantom with minimally invasive catheter-based cardiac interventional procedures. The goal is the development of a cardiac phantom, printed in anatomical size, from the segmentation of the 3D extended cardiac-torso (XCAT) phantom for multimodality imaging research [3]. The challenge is the integration in the phantom shell of the support SUP706, a cheap and affordable material with great MRI signal properties. For this, we have to be careful to avoid any contact of this material with liquids as it is known to dissolve easily.

[1] J. Laing, J. Moore, R. Vassallo, D. Bainbridge, M. Drangova, and T. Peters, “Patient-specific cardiac phantom for clinical training and preprocedure surgical planning,” Journal of Medical Imaging, vol. 5, no. 02, p. 1, Mar. 2018, doi: 10.1117/1.jmi.5.2.021222.
[2] A. Valladares, G. Oberoi, A. Berg, T. Beyer, E. Unger, and I. Rausch, “Additively manufactured, solid object structures for adjustable image contrast in Magnetic Resonance Imaging,” Z Med Phys, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 466–476, Nov. 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.zemedi.2022.03.003.
[3] W. P. Segars, G. Sturgeon, S. Mendonca, J. Grimes, and B. M. W. Tsui, “4D XCAT phantom for multimodality imaging research,” Med Phys, vol. 37, no. 9, pp. 4902–4915, 2010, doi: 10.1118/1.3480985.