Very affordable post mortem CT angiography kit: Feasibility study using immersion pump and 3D printed parts

Abstract

The high cost of commercial components and parts for post-mortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA) has resulted in the development of a very low cost PMCTA-kit. It contains ubiquitous parts from hardware stores, and rapid prototyping derived models for 3D-printing. Design specifications have been tested and improved after finite-element modeling. A case study performed in using the final PMCTA kit parts for a PMCTA shows perfect vascular contrast without relevant leaks.

Comparison of very affordable immersion pump and heart-lung-machine for post mortem CT angiography in forensic pathology – A case-control study

“…Further hardware employed: banana plugs, plastic bucket, silicone tubing. Including the mount/access parts [9], estimated total cost of all parts required for PMCTA (except fluid containers such as a bucket, single use floor covers, plastic covers, and contrast agent) remains under 200 CHF / EUR. Flow rate / voltage correlation was determined for both water and PEG-contrast agent solution (details see [8]).…”

“…It is recommended that the submersible pump always be handled with two hands [8]. Bimanual handling is not always a given, and to improve submersible pump handling, we developed a series of 3D-designed and printed freely available support materials, including insertion catheters and vascular tourniquet sets, to facilitate handling of these small submersible pumps [9].…”

“…We had previously established in a feasibility study [8,9] that a simple centrifugal type immersion pump (with the pump itself priced as low as ∼ 20 CHF/EUR) exhibits a linear voltage-flowrate relationship when we use an iodine and PEG based contrast agent solution. Now, we share the results of ten immersion pump (IP) contrasted cases in a case-control (same sex, similar age) study with a heart-lung machine (HLM) contrasted series.…”

Overview of the use of 3D printing in forensic medicine

“…As new applications arise, such as post-mortem computed tomography angiography (PMCTA), we found that some required parts may not be commercially available, whereas others may be built with convenience, so we developed and built them in-house [37]. For these parts, up to around ten iterations were used to reach the current designs.…”