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Characterization of blood-mimicking fluids for echocardiography imaging of ventricular septal defects

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International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Ventricular septal defects (VSD) are congenital heart malformations and, in severe cases, they require complex interventions under echocardiography guidance. Heart phantoms can be helpful to train and to understand the complex hemodynamics of VSD. The goal of this study was to characterize the best blood mimicking fluids in such heart phantoms for modelling the hemodynamics of VSD patients using echocardiography.

Methods

Four fluid compositions were considered. Distilled water was used as a baseline, while the other three fluids were developed based on physical properties of human blood, such as the viscosity and the refractive index. Three bi-ventricular heart phantoms of three different pediatric patients with complex VSD were designed from preoperative CT imaging. Custom molds were printed in 3-D and the anatomical structure was casted in polyvinyl alcohol cryogel. The VSD in each heart phantom were observed using echocardiography and color Doppler imaging was used for the hemodynamic study.

Results

Heart phantoms with blood mimicking fluids of 30% glycerol and 27% glycerol, 10% sodium iodide were found to be anatomically realistic under echocardiography imaging. Hemodynamic parameters such as the pressure gradient and the volume of the shunt were characterized using color Doppler imaging.

Conclusion

Proper composition of blood mimicking fluids are important for improving the realism in echocardiographic heart phantoms and they contribute to better understand the complex hemodynamic of VSD under echocardiography.

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Data availability

The clinical datasets cannot be publicly released. The material used in this study is commercially available.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interventional Imaging Laboratory, École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada

    Sarah Amouri, Gerardo Tibamoso-Pedraza & Luc Duong

  2. Department of Cardiology, CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Canada

    Iñaki Navarro-Castellanos, Marie-Josée Raboisson & Joaquim Miró

  3. Department of Medical Imaging, CHU Sainte-Justine, Montreal, Canada

    Chantale Lapierre

Authors
  1. Sarah Amouri
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  2. Gerardo Tibamoso-Pedraza
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  3. Iñaki Navarro-Castellanos
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  4. Marie-Josée Raboisson
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  5. Chantale Lapierre
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  6. Joaquim Miró
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  7. Luc Duong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luc Duong.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Institutional review board approval from CHU Sainte-Justine was obtained for this retrospective study.

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Amouri, S., Tibamoso-Pedraza, G., Navarro-Castellanos, I. et al. Characterization of blood-mimicking fluids for echocardiography imaging of ventricular septal defects. Int J CARS 17, 1601–1609 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-022-02686-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-022-02686-0

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