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Portrait of Magnus Dustler. Photo

Magnus Dustler

Researcher

Portrait of Magnus Dustler. Photo

Evaluation of 3D printed contrast detail phantoms for mammography quality assurance

Author

  • Måns Boll
  • Trevor Vent
  • Hanna Tomic
  • Christian Bernhardsson
  • Magnus Dustler
  • Anders Tingberg
  • Predrag R. Bakic

Editor

  • Hilde Bosmans
  • Nicholas Marshall
  • Chantal Van Ongeval

Summary, in English

Objects created by 3D printers are increasingly used in various medical applications. Today, affordable 3D printers, using Fused Deposition Modeling are widely available. In this project, a commercially available 3D printer was used to replicate a conventional radiographic contrast detail phantom. Printing materials were selected by comparing their x-ray attenuation properties. Two replicas were printed using polylactic acid, with different filling patterns. The printed phantoms were imaged by a clinical mammography system, using automatic exposure control. Phantom images were visually and quantitively compared to images of the corresponding conventional contrast detail phantom. Visual scoring of the contrast detail elements was performed by a medical physics student. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was calculated for each phantom element. The diameter and thickness of the smallest visible phantom object were 0.44 mm and 0.09 mm, respectively, for both filling patterns. For the conventional phantom, the diameter and thickness of the smallest visible object were 0.31 mm and 0.09 mm. Visual inspection of printed phantoms revealed some linear artefacts. These artefacts were however not visible on mammographic projections. Quantitively, average CNR of printed phantom objects followed the same trend with an increase of average CNR with increasing disk height. However, there is a limitation of detail objects with disk diameters below 1.25 mm, caused by the available nozzle size. Based upon the encouraging results, future work will explore the use of different materials and smaller nozzle diameters.

Department/s

  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö
  • LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö

Publishing year

2022

Language

English

Publication/Series

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Volume

12286

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

SPIE

Topic

  • Medical Image Processing
  • Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • contrast detail phantom
  • contrast-tonoise ratio
  • Mammography quality assurance
  • visual analysis

Conference name

16th International Workshop on Breast Imaging, IWBI 2022

Conference date

2022-05-22 - 2022-05-25

Conference place

Leuven, Belgium

Status

Published

Research group

  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö
  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1996-756X
  • ISSN: 0277-786X
  • ISBN: 9781510655843