Anatomical vessel models

At BMT, anatomical vessel models are manufactured and used for research into vascular diseases and endovascular implants. Geometries are extracted from imaging data of patients through image segmentation. Based on intended physical characteristics, fabrication of block-embedded as well as thin wall vessel models is done by different manufacturing technologies such as 3D-printing, coating and molding. In particular, elastic hydrogel-based materials are used to closely resemble the mechanical and physical properties of real vessels.

Integrated in mock circulatory loops providing a pulsatile flow, models enable the understanding and prediction of flow dynamic processes in vascular diseases such as aneurysms or stenoses before and after minimally invasive, catheter-based treatment.  The research focus of this research field is on the investigation of the mechanical behavior of implants, including integrity, position accuracy and vessel wall adaptation affected by anatomical parameters as well as flow patterns.