Creating three dimensional models of Alzheimer’s disease

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer’s disease prevalence will reach epidemic proportions in coming decades. There is a need for impactful educational materials to help patients, families, medical practitioners, and policy makers understand the nature and impact of the disease. Defining an effective workflow to create such models from existing segmentation tools will be a valuable contribution in creating these patient-specific models. RESULTS: A step-by-step workflow was developed and used to take patients’ Digital Imaging and Computing in Medicine magnetic resonance brain images through a process resulting in illustrative 3D–printed brain and hippocampus models that clearly demonstrate the progressive degenerative changes caused by Alzheimer’s disease. We outline the specific technical steps of auto-segmentation, manual smoothing, Standard Triangle Language file customization, and 3D printing used to create these models. CONCLUSIONS: Our explicated workflow can create effective models of Alzheimer’s brains that can be used in patient education, medical education, and policy forums.