3D printing for cost-effective, customized, reusable multi-modality imaging phantoms

3D printing is a developing technology that allows for the rapid fabrication of arbitrary three dimensional shapes. The technology is becoming increasingly affordable, accurate and accessible to researchers. As a result they are an attractive option for research groups to quickly and cheaply fabricate multi-modality imaging phantoms. In this work one 70 mm long, 50 mm diameter and two reusable 11 mm long, 20 mm diameter cylindrical phantoms with wells for imaging agents were fabricated for use with a high resolution PET system under development at Stanford. The 3D printed phantoms were imaged using flat panel X-ray, CT, MRI and PET modalities. The phantoms show that 3D printing can be an effective technique for quickly, and cheaply fabricating customized reusable phantoms for multiple imaging modalities.