Abstract
Interventional devices including intragastric balloons are widely used to treat obesity. This study aims to develop 3D-printed, patient-specific, and anthropomorphic gastric phantoms with mechanical properties similar to those of human stomach. Using computed tomography gastrography (CTG) images of three patients, gastric phantoms were modelled through shape registration to align the stomach shapes of three different phases. Shape accuracies of the original gastric models versus the 3D-printed phantoms were compared using landmark distances. The mechanical properties (elongation and tensile strength), number of silicone coatings (0, 2, and 8 times), and specimen hardness (50, 60, and 70 Shore A) of three materials (Agilus, Elastic, and Flexa) were evaluated. Registration accuracy was significantly lower between the arterial and portal phases (3.16 ± 0.80 mm) than that between the portal and delayed phases (8.92 ± 0.96 mm). The mean shape accuracy difference was less than 10 mm. The mean elongations and tensile strengths of the Agilus, Elastic, and Flexa were 264%, 145%, and 146% and 1.14, 1.59, and 2.15 MPa, respectively, and their mechanical properties differed significantly (all p < 0.05). Elongation and tensile strength assessments, CTG image registration and 3D printing resulted in highly realistic and patient-specific gastric phantoms with reasonable shape accuracies.
Highlights
Interventional devices including intragastric balloons are widely used to treat obesity
Several studies of volunteers or obese patients have demonstrated the safety of intragastric balloon (IGB) or identified optimal balloon c haracteristics[8,9,10], no study to date has demonstrated the usability of novel IGB using a patient-specific phantom, which would function as a tool for accelerated virtual ex-vivo study
Several studies have captured the general shape of the stomach using triphasic computed tomography (CT) s cans[17,18], image registration techniques might be required to duplicate the shape of the stomach using multiple-phase contrast-enhanced CT scans including peristaltic motions
Summary
Interventional devices including intragastric balloons are widely used to treat obesity. Elongation and tensile strength assessments, CTG image registration and 3D printing resulted in highly realistic and patient-specific gastric phantoms with reasonable shape accuracies. Several studies of volunteers or obese patients have demonstrated the safety of IGB or identified optimal balloon c haracteristics[8,9,10], no study to date has demonstrated the usability of novel IGB using a patient-specific phantom, which would function as a tool for accelerated virtual ex-vivo study To enable this evaluation, the current pilot study examined the mechanical properties of the candidate 3D-printing materials for construction of the patient-specific gastric phantom. This study aimed to fabricate 3D-printed anthropomorphic gastric phantoms that incorporated patient-specific morphology based on CT images and suitable materials with appropriate tensile strength and elongation properties
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