AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB025080064
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Early Access

Evaluation of 3D-printed silicone phantoms with controllable MRI signal properties

Sepideh Hatamikia1,2* Olgica Zaric3,4 Laszlo Jaksa2 Florian Schwarzhans3 Siegfried Trattnig4,5 Sebastian Fitzek6 Gernot Kronreif2 Ramona Woitek3 Andrea Lorenz2
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1 Research Center for Clinical AI-Research in Omics and Medical Data Science (CAROM), Department of Medicine, Krems an der Donau, Austria
2 Austrian Center for Medical Innovation and Technology (ACMIT), Wiener Neustadt, Austria
3 Research Center for Medical Image Analysis and Artificial Intelligence (MIAAI), Department of Medicine, Danube Private University, Krems, Austria
4 Institute for Clinical Molecular MRI in Musculoskeletal System, Karl Landsteiner Society, Vienna, Austria
5 High-field MR Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
6 Health Services Research Group, Medical Images Analysis and Artificial Intelligence (MIAAI), Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Danube Private University
Submitted: 23 February 2025 | Accepted: 25 March 2025 | Published: 26 March 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s).. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

3D printing technology is widely used for creating MRI phantoms, mimicking tissue and contrast levels found in real patients. Traditionally, 3D-printed structures were filled with gels containing contrast agents. Recently, studies have shown that some 3D-printed materials can be directly used to create MRI phantoms. However, each material typically produces a unique MRI signal, requiring specific materials for desired contrasts, or a single material can produce various contrasts, but these often do not match the properties of different soft tissues. In this study, we aimed to investigate MRI signal properties of 3D printed phantoms made of silicone in MRI. We determined the MRI relaxation times of extrusion silicone 3D-printed phantoms from different materials with different infill densities and correlate them with the reference values in soft tissues. We also evaluate performance of our approach using realistic tumor phantoms. A reproducibility analysis as well as longitudinal stability analysis was also performed. The experimental results showed that the 3D printed silicone phantoms could achieve MRI signal properties with good correspondence to a range of soft tissues and organs (T1 relaxation time range of 850.8 ms to 1113.3 ms and T2 relaxation time range of 22.6 ms and 140.7 ms). Our results demonstrated good stability of the T1 and T2 values over time and also good agreement for the replicas compared to original samples, confirming the reproducibility of the printed materials. A good agreement was observed between the MRI signal property in tumor phantoms and the reference values of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast in patients.

Funding
This work has been supported by ACMIT – Austrian Center for Medical Innovation and Technology, which is funded within the scope of the COMET program and funded by Austrian BMVIT and BMWFW and the governments of Lower Austria and Tyrol. This work was also supported by the Provincial Government of Lower Austria (Land Niederösterreich) under grant assignment number WST3-F2- 528983/005-2018.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing