Feasibility of ultrasound-derived 3D printed ASD models
3D-TEE images of all the 40 ASD patients were successfully post-processed, and then the corresponding 3D models of ASD were printed by the high-precision fused deposition modelling (FDM) printer. The total time from data set acquisition to standard tessellation language (STL) file generation and final 3D model printing was approximately 16 hours. All the 3D printed models were translucent, smooth and soft (Fig 2 ),36 models with one-hole secundum ASD and 4 models with double-hole secundum ASD, visual inspection showed good agreement between the 3D models and the TEE data sets.