USC 3D-Printed MRI Sensors Give Infants Four Times Better Scans

USC Engineers 3D-Print Custom MRI Sensors for Infants

Standard MRI coils are built for adult bodies. They do not fit small chests, they do not flex with a baby's breathing, and they leave gaps that blur the image. A team at the University of Southern California has a new answer: print a coil that matches the patient exactly.

The process starts with a digital file. Researchers 3D print conductive silver ink directly onto a stretchy thermoplastic elastomer. The finished sensor bends with the skin and can be resized on a computer and reprinted in minutes. For a growing child, that means fresh coils as the body changes.

In tests at USC's Michelson Center, the custom sensors produced roughly four times the image contrast of off-the-shelf commercial coils. The system also captured fast-moving anatomy, including a beating heart, by pairing with specialized imaging software.

The project combined two labs. Yasser Khan's group develops flexible wearable electronics. Krishna Shrinivas Nayak's Dynamic Imaging Science Center builds MRI methods for motion. Clinical input came from John Wood at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, who guides real-time fetal heart imaging.

"We need environments where different ideas can collide," Khan said. "This project wouldn't have happened without access to the MRI and conversations with cardiologists, radiologists and imaging scientists."

Each coil costs about $30 in materials and prints in under 10 minutes. That compares to weeks of waiting for a manufacturer to fabricate a generic part. The team plans to expand the approach to other pediatric devices and eventually to adult patients who need custom-fitted sensors.

Other research groups are heading in the same direction. The University of Lincoln 3D printed a sensor-embedded prosthetic arm for toddlers. University College London built a wearable brain sensor for newborns. These projects share one point: when the patient is too small for standard equipment, digital fabrication can close the gap faster than any factory.