Evaluation of 3D printable rubber-elastomeric polymer as phantom material for Hybrid PET/MRI

In this study, a new series of 3D printable filaments called PORO-LAY have been investigated on behalf of their suitability to serve as material for the development of novel phantoms for hybrid PET/MRI. PORO-LAY filaments have been previously used in biofuel cell development, particle filtration and for modeling elastic tissues. We tested porosity, electrical permittivity, electrical conductivity, and absorptive capacity of the material as well as resulting image contrast and image homogeneity when undergoing PET and MRI scanning. The results of this study demonstrate that these filaments with their unique properties may be good candidates for the construction of phantoms (e.g. for mimicking brain tissues) for hybrid PET/MRI using a low cost 3D printing layer by layer additive manufacturing method. Such novel multimodal phantoms could potentially be used as new standard for development and evaluation of PET/MRI methods (e.g. regarding attenuation and motion correction, image reconstruction and general image quality assessment).