VOA标准英语2013--3D Printers Help Heart Surgeons 3D打印机助力心外科医生

3D Printers Help Heart Surgeons  3D打印机助力心外科医生

3D printers are slowly entering everyday life and they are increasingly being used in medicine. Doctors at Washington's Children's National Medical Center say the life-size tri-dimensional prints of their patients' hearts helps them in planning and executing surgeries.

3D打印机正慢慢进入人们的日常生活，越来越多的应用于医疗领域。华盛顿全国儿童医疗中心的医生说，患者真人大小的三维打印心脏帮助他们进行心外科手术的计划和实施。

Magnetic resonance 1 imaging, computer tomography and ultrasound already give pretty good images of patients' internal organs, but doctors at the Children's National Medical Center say nothing beats holding a life-size model of a heart in your hand prior to the surgery. They can study it, plan the procedure and even practice the access to the damaged area.

核磁共振成像、CT扫描和超声扫描已经能够对患者的内部器官给出相当不错的图像，但全国儿童医疗中心的医生说，什么都比不上在手术前拿到一个患者真人大小的心脏模型。他们可以研究它，计划手术过程，甚至可以用它练习进入心脏受损区域。

Pediatric cardiologist Laura Olivieri says many of their young patients were born with hearts that did not form as they should have, but surgeons can correct that.

儿科心脏病专家劳拉•奥利维利说，他们的许多年轻患者心脏先天畸形，但可以通过手术矫正。

"Seeing the heart defect in three dimensions can really help the interventionist or the surgeon plan the best procedure," she said.

她说：“在三维模型中能直观看到心脏的缺陷，这真的会帮助介入治疗或者外科医生提供最优的治疗方案。”

The hospital acquired the $250,000 printer about 18 months ago and the team is still expanding and finding new areas to print.

医院在18个月前获得了250，000美元的打印机，这个团队仍然在扩大和探索新的打印领域。

The procedure always starts with taking a set of three-dimensional images with magnetic resonance imager, computer tomography scanner and ultrasound machine. Highly trained pediatric cardiologists manipulate those images and separate the organ from the noise in the picture. In order to save time in printing they sometimes also cut away parts of the image irrelevant 2 to the planned procedure.

打印过程都是首先利用核磁共振仪、CT扫描仪和超声波机取得一套三维图像。训练有素的儿科心脏病专家巧妙的处理那些图像，将器官从图像的噪声中分离出来。为节省打印时间，他们有时也将与治疗不相关的图像部分切除。

"It takes us now about an average I would say about two hours of manual work on the computer to manipulate the data in to generate the 3D model and the printer takes about, for a full size heart like this, it takes about 12 hours," said mechanical engineer Alex Krieger, the principal investigator 3 for pediatric surgical 4 innovation at the Children's National Medical Center. "A smaller heart maybe five, six hours. "

机械工程师亚历克斯•克里格是全国儿童医疗中心小儿外科创新的主要研究者，他说：“我们现在大约需要两个小时坐在计算机前手工处理这些数据来生成3D模型，打印像这么大的一个全尺寸心脏，大约需要12个小时，小一点的心脏大概五、六个小时。”

Krieger says in one instance his team printed a model of the heart of a patient with stenosis, or narrowing of the passage between two heart chambers 5. The interventional 6 cardiologist wanted to see exactly what kind of stent he should use, the size and length of it, and also the access path.

克里格举了一个例子，他的团队为一名心脏瓣膜狭窄的病人打印了一个心脏模型。介入性心脏病学家想看看他到底需要哪种扩张支架，支架的尺寸和长度，以及介入路径。

"So this model allowed him to really look at that in depth and plan, and prepare for the procedure better," he said.

他说：“所以有了这个模型，他就可以实实在在的研究一下，作出计划，更好的准备相关流程。”

The machine prints by spraying layers of plastic, one on top of the other, while the ultraviolet light immediately cures it before the next layer is sprayed. Krieger says the printer can be loaded with two different materials. Precise control of their ratio allows the printed model to feel very natural, with both hard and soft tissues.

机器工作时一层叠一层的喷出塑料图层，在下一层喷出来之前，立刻用紫外线固化。克里格说，打印机可以加载两种不同材料。通过精确控制它们的比例可以打印出带有软硬两种组织的非常自然的模型。

Cardiologist Olivieri says doctors still have to learn a lot about the new procedure.

心脏病专家奥利维利说，对这种新流程，医生们还需要学习很多。

"It's a brand new field. These have only been possible for a very little amount of time and I don't think we even know the full capability 7 of what we're going to be... what they're going to be used for," she said. "We're kind of talking about a technology that went going from feasible to kind of usable and we're right in that middle ground right now. "

“这是一个全新的领域。极短的时间内这一切就成了现实，我甚至不觉得我们已经知道我们将获得的全部能力……它们将会被用于哪里。”她说，“我们正在谈论一种从可行到可用的技术，我们现在就处在这种中间地带。”

There is also hope that someday hospitals will be able to print even replacement 8 parts for damaged organs.

同样还有一种希望，终有一天，医院能够打印出甚至替代受损的器官。

"There's eventually some organ printing, you know, that's the ultimate goal, but I think there are a few steps between that we will reach in the next few years, on the way to full organ printing that I'm very excited about," said Krieger.

克里格说：“迟早有些器官会被打印出来，你知道，那是终极目标，但我觉得在未来几年达到这一目标前还有几步要走，走在全器官打印的路上让我很兴奋。”