Medical Imaging & 3D Printing Glossary

Plain-language definitions of DICOM, modalities, meshes, and prenatal imaging terms used on LifePrint 3D.

• 3D Ultrasound — Ultrasound acquisition reconstructed into a 3D surface or volume.
• 4D Ultrasound — 3D ultrasound displayed over time to show fetal motion.
• Amniotic Fluid — Fluid surrounding the fetus; adequate fluid often improves 3D surface detail.
• Anatomical Model — A physical representation of anatomy derived from imaging or reference data.
• CT — Computed tomography uses X-rays to create cross-sectional images, often exported as DICOM.
• CTA — CT angiography highlights blood vessels using contrast and CT acquisition.
• DICOM — Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine—the standard file format for medical imaging studies.
• FDM — Fused deposition modeling—layer-by-layer thermoplastic 3D printing.
• Fetal Anatomy — Structures of the developing fetus visible on prenatal ultrasound when position allows.
• Gestational Age — Time since the first day of the last menstrual period, used to contextualize fetal imaging.
• Hounsfield Unit — CT density scale used to differentiate tissues in Hounsfield units (HU).
• Keepsake — A commemorative physical object—in our case, a 3D print from eligible imaging.
• Mesh — A surface model made of vertices and faces, suitable for 3D printing.
• Mesh Smoothing — Digital processing that reduces noise while preserving intended anatomy.
• MRI — Magnetic resonance imaging uses magnetic fields to visualize soft tissues with strong contrast.
• OBJ — A widely supported 3D geometry format often paired with texture maps.
• Patient-Specific Model — A model built from an individual patient's imaging study.
• Placenta — An organ in pregnancy; may appear in fetal ultrasound volumes but is not the focus of keepsakes.
• Placenta Previa — A clinical condition; keepsakes do not diagnose or rule out complications.
• Segmentation — The process of isolating anatomy from background voxels for modeling.
• Slice Thickness — Distance between consecutive cross-sectional images in a series.
• STL — A common 3D mesh file format used for additive manufacturing.
• Surface Rendering — Visualization technique that displays 3D surfaces from volumetric data.
• Ultrasound Volume — A 3D dataset from ultrasound, typically built from tracked 2D slices.
• Voxel — A 3D pixel representing intensity in a volumetric imaging dataset.