An Approach for Development of a Physical Breast Phantom for X-ray Imaging Using an Inkjet Printer: Preliminary Results

Anthropomorphic physical body phantoms turn out to be a valuable tool for evaluation, calibration and quality assurance of radiology equipment. Physical shape, composition and radiological equivalency are essential requirements for these phantoms. Nowadays, 3D printing technologies provide vast possibilities for production of anthropomorphic phantoms. Recently, simple printing on paper sheets was explored to produce realistic phantoms that are less expensive and do not require a specialized equipment. The current preliminary study evaluates the feasibility of an approach to create a physical anthropomorphic breast phantom using a conventional inkjet printer and plain office paper. Several x-ray contrast substances can be used as ink additives in order to achieve x-ray attenuation. In this study, we use a solution of potassium iodide (KI) in distilled water due to its low price, easy dissolution and easy insertion into the printer cartridge. A segmented slice from a patient breast MRI was printed on several sets of paper sheets. Each set was x-rayed at 40 kVp, 60 kVp and 80 kVp. Regions of Interest (ROIs) were assigned on the x-ray images to evaluate several parameters such as minimum, maximum, and average grey value. Subjective evaluation was visually performed, while objective evaluation was performed through a comparison of calculated values within a given set and for the ROI between the different sets. This preliminary study showed that the proposed approach is suitable for the development of realistic physical breast phantoms for x-ray imaging research. Further work is related to the creation of a complete "paper" phantom and its evaluation for use in mammography imaging.