Heart Implants, 3-D-Printed to Order

摘要

Somewhat poetically, everyone's heart is a slightly different size and shape. And yet cardiac implants-devices like pacemakers and defibrilla-tors-are basically one size fits all. Researchers have now demonstrated a new kind of personalized heart sensor as part of an effort to change that. They used images of animals' hearts to create models of the organ using a 3-D printer and then built stretchy electronics on top of those models. The material can be peeled off the model and wrapped around the real heart for a perfect fit.