New research is using 3D printing to advance understanding and treatment of abnormal heart rhythms.
心脏是人体中最重要的器官。了解心脏的行为对于进行手术程序的医生至关重要，但在医学研究领域也至关重要。
Scientists at universities in the UK and Denmark have developed a new method of conceptualising the cardIAC传导系统（CCS） - 负责心脏自动节奏节奏的系统。这项新技术将意味着外科医生将能够计划在异常心脏中进行复杂的心脏手术，而不会损害宝贵的组织。
心脏的CC由几个组成部分组成，每个组成部分对于心脏的功能至关重要。这些组件包括:窦房结(responsible for excitation signals), Atrioventricular Node (responsible for delaying the signal), bundle of His (which transmits impulses from the Atrioventricular Node), and the Purkinje Fibres (working with the bundle of His to spread the waves along the ventricles, causing them to contract).
Lowering the risk of repairing hearts
Scientists from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), The University of Manchester, Newcastle University, and Aarhus University in Den马克现在能够通过他们的新研究以3D格式可视化这种导电系统。它的标题为：“从微分解到数学建模的人CC的高分辨率3维成像”。这些发现发表在学术期刊上Scientific Reports。
该研究的数据提供了一种比当前在计算机模型上可用的方法更详细的方法来分析心跳。通过揭示CCS在正常情况下的确切位置heart, our understanding of widespread heart rhythms problems like heart block and atrial fibrillation – affecting more than 33 million people worldwide – should hopefully be improved.
LJMU体育与运动科学学院的乔纳森·贾维斯（Jonathan Jarvis）教授解释说：“ 3D数据使理解心脏传导系统与心脏其余部分之间的复杂关系变得更加容易。”一旦捕获数据，就可以将其格式化以供进一步使用。贾维斯教授说：“我们还使用数据来制作3D打印模型，这些模型在与心脏医生，其他研究人员和心脏问题的患者的讨论中确实有用。”
“因此，修复或更换主动脉瓣的新策略必须确保它们不会损坏或压缩这种珍贵的组织。在未来的工作中，我们将能够看到心脏传导系统在未正确形成的心脏中运行的地方。这将有助于修复此类心脏的外科医生，以设计损害心脏传导系统风险最小的操作。”
推进3D扫描医学成像
The process works by soaking post-mortem samples in an iodine solution, which means that the soft tissues can absorb X-Rays and therefore become visible. These X-Rays are then used to make 3D scans detailed enough to distinguish the boundaries between single heart cells and even detect the direction they are arranged. Micro-CT scanning was conducted using the Nikon Metris XTEK 320 kV Custom Bay and Nikon XTEK XTH 225 kV systems at the Manchester X-Ray Imaging Facility, University of Manchester.
Over the last decade, there have been anumber of advancementsmade in understanding of the CCS, but due to its unique embryological origin, identifying the CCS through gross specimen and surgery is difficult. However, thanks to this new 3D method, anatomists and cardiovascular specialists may now be able to successfully locate the CCS by using a 3D model of its arteries.
曼彻斯特大学心血管局的Halina Dobrzynski博士从事CCS解剖学工作了20年，他说：“这只是一个开始。英国心脏基金会正在支持我的小组从老化和失败的心脏中看到3D的系统。与我的研究助理安德鲁·阿特金森（Andrew Atkinson）一起，与乔纳森·贾维斯（Jonathan Jarvis），罗伯特·斯蒂芬森（Robert Stephenson）等教授一起工作，我们将在3D中产生来自老年和失败的数据家族。”
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