Case Study: IBiTech achieves new insights into anisotropic liver microcirculation with Materialise's 3D imaging and modeling software

Unraveling the Complexity of Liver Blood Circulation

IBiTech set out to unravel the complex blood flow patterns in the liver’s microcirculation, challenging the common assumption that permeability is equal in all directions. To build accurate 3D models from high-resolution micro-CT scans, IBiTech relied on Materialise software—including Mimics, Magics and 3-matic—to extract and prepare the lobule and sinusoid geometries for analysis.

Using Materialise’s tools to segment and refine the geometry, IBiTech created a CFD-ready fluid domain (further processed with TGrid and simulated in Fluent) that quantified pressure, preferential flow pathways, wall shear stresses and permeability. The results showed clear anisotropy: longitudinal permeability was almost twice that of other directions, demonstrating that models must account for direction-dependent sinusoidal permeability; Materialise’s reconstruction and preprocessing workflow directly enabled these measurable insights with implications for donor liver preservation and disease modeling.

IBiTech