Thursday video: US team creates 3D images on 2D ultrasound machine

With low-cost 3D printed materials, a microchip common to smartphones, a few wires and a laptop, a 2D ultrasound machine can capture 3D images of infants’ brains, for example, with similar quality to MRI or CT scans while the baby is held in a parent’s arms.

The development from doctors and engineers from Duke University and Stanford University was presented on October 31, 2017, at the American College of Emergency Physicians Research Forum.

“With 2D technology you see a visual ‘slice’ of an organ, but without any context, you may mistake it for another part, or mistake one disease process or injury for another,” said Joshua Broder, MD, emergency physician and director of the emergency medicine residency program at the Duke University School of Medicine.

“These are all problems that can be solved with the added orientation and holistic context of 3D technology. Gaining that ability at an incredibly low cost by taking existing machines and upgrading them seemed like the best solution to us.”