Texas Engineers are part of a multi-institutional ラーメンベット 入金スピード team designing custom molds for breast cancer patients who undergo reconstructive surgery.
The project, supported by a .6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, is set to make reconstruction more suitable for patients whose reconstructive goals are more complex than reproducing their preoperative appearance, promoting psychosocial adjustment to cancer survivorship and reducing time in care.
“Appearance changes due to mastectomies take a tremendous mental toll on ラーメンベット 入金スピード who have already been through so much,” said Mia Markey, professor in the ラーメンベット 禁止ゲーム of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and one of the leaders of the project.
Previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using patient-specific molds to shape tissue into a ラーメンベット 入金スピード form, but rigorous evaluation of their impact remains lacking. This new study includes a randomized controlled clinical trial for evaluation.
During the commonly performed autologous reconstruction, surgeons use skin, fat, blood vessels and muscle from another part of the patient’s body to rebuild the ラーメンベット 入金スピード. This method is widely recognized as effective, with long-term advantages over other techniques.
However, autologous reconstruction procedures are complex, lengthy operations requiring substantial skill and experience. Plus, a revision procedure is typically required to adequately restore the patient’s bodily form; in some cases, multiple revisions are needed.
The team will develop clinical decision-support algorithms for designing patient-specific ラーメンベット 入金スピード molds for tissue shaping.
In practice, the new algorithm-driven ラーメンベット 入金スピード molds should reduce the cost of reconstruction and the pain and risk associated with reconstruction when several procedures are performed.
Prior work investigated simple molds that merely copied the preoperative shape and size of the patient's breasts, or a mirrored version of the contralateral ラーメンベット 入金スピード in the case of unilateral ラーメンベット 入金スピード reconstruction. However, many patients desire or require a different ラーメンベット 入金スピード form after mastectomy and so simply copying the preoperative ラーメンベット 入金スピード form is inadequate.
“Our approach in developing the clinical decision-support algorithms is informed by our experience in image perception, machine learning, image processing, and shape modeling and conducting a thorough evaluation in a randomized controlled clinical trial,” said Fatima Merchant, department chair ラーメンベット 入金スピード at the University of Houston and one of the project’s leaders.
The ラーメンベット 入金スピード team includes multiple principal investigators: Markey, Merchant and Ashleigh M. Francis at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The team is part of the Multidisciplinary Breast Reconstruction ラーメンベット 入金スピード Program at MD Anderson.
Investigators at UT include Haoqi Wang, Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical ラーメンベット 入金スピード. The MD Anderson team includes Deepti Chopra, Z-Hye Lee, Christopher Parham, Gregory P. Reece, Margaret Roubaud, Mark Schaverien, and John Shuck.
Merchant is supported in this work by UH investigators, Ann Chen, ラーメンベット 入金スピード associate professor, HEALTH ラーメンベット 入金スピード Institute, Weihang Zhu, professor, Department of Engineering Technology, and Elizabeth Rodwell, assistant professor, Department of Information Systems Technology.
