Exporting VQ ROIs to the real world

Thanks to modern 3D Printing technology, you can now export your VivoQuant 3D regions of interest (ROIs) into the real world. VivoQuant offers a wide array of export options, e.g. as STL or VRML, which can be read in by most 3D modelling or CAT software. The 3D printer takes a model and adds small dots of liquified plastic, feed as a long thread to the system, to a base plate. The plastic cools down and sets, so additional layers can be added, until the full model is completed.

Since VivoQuant is a great tool to produce three dimensional ROI from medical imaging data it is a perfect source for printed anatomical models.

To export your ROIs, use the ‘Store to disk’ option of the ‘3D ROI Tool’:

and then select the filetype from the list shown:

The resulting files can than easily imported into your 3D Printing software.

We were using a CapInc Stratasys uPrint SEplus 3D Print to produce results such as this print out of a Rhesus monkey brain or a mouse paw:

Please check out above gallery (click on the images top open them in full) to see more pictures of the modelling process.

References:

• 3D Printing at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing
• Wired article on 3D printed skeletons: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/3d-printed-skeletons/
• 3D Printer we used: http://www.capinc.com/products/stratasys-3d-printers/idea-series/uprint-3d-printers