The use of 3-D printing could be used to give physicians the ability to construct interventional radiology devices to specific sizes and shapes and provide customized interventional radiology treatments to their patients, according to a study presented Monday at the Society of International Radiology’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Atlanta.

Horacio R. D’Agostino, MD, lead researcher and an interventional radiologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUH), and his team of biomedical engineers and nanosystem engineers at LSUH and Louisiana Tech University, investigated the possibility of leveraging 3D technology to construct IR devices that were bioactive—that is they would be able to deliver active medication to a targeted area.

Using 3D printers and bio-plastics, the team constructed filaments, beads, catheters and stents that could contain antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents and then tested those devices to see whether they could stop the growth of bacteria or cancer cells.

D’Agostiino said that antibiotics contained in catheters were able to inhibit the growth of E. coli in the laboratory, while filaments containing chemotherapeutic agents were able to inhibit cancer cells. 

“Although . . . these are early successes, we believe that our findings with this technology highlight the limitless potential of interventional radiology to offer patient-centered care,” D’Agostino said, pointing out that the technology offers the possibility of printing catheters and stents “almost on demand, in sizes and shapes that are customized to each patient.”

“We treat a wide variety of patients and, with some patients, the current one-size-fits-all devices are not an option,” he noted. “3-D printing gives us the ability to craft devices that are better suited for certain patient populations that are traditionally tough to treat, such as children and the obese, who have different anatomy. There’s limitless potential to be explored with this technology,”

D’Agostino added that once approval is received to use these devices on humans, he sees opportunities to “collaborate with other medical specialties to ensure that all patients benefit from this innovative technology and receive the highest quality personalized care.”