In-house development of a neonatal chest simulation phantom.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiological Imaging
• Pediatric Imaging

Background:

• Accurate assessment of image quality and patient dose in neonatal radiography is crucial.
• Existing phantoms may not fully replicate the unique anatomical and radiological properties of a neonatal chest.
• Developing a specialized phantom is necessary for reliable investigations in diagnostic radiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and construct an anatomical and radiological phantom simulating a neonatal chest.
• To enable investigations into image quality and patient entrance surface dose (ESD) in neonatal radiography.
• To select optimal substitute materials for radiological equivalence to neonatal tissues.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of substitute materials for density, elemental composition, scatter, attenuation, and absorption characteristics.
• Anatomical data acquisition using computed tomography (CT) on a neonatal cadaver for dimensional measurements.
• Phantom construction through layer-by-layer machining based on scaled drawings and validation via region of interest (ROI) analyses.

Main Results:

• Optimal substitute materials were identified to represent neonatal muscle, bone, and lung tissues (healthy/collapsed).
• The constructed neonatal chest phantom demonstrated acceptable simulation of a real neonatal chest with 32.5% deviation.
• The phantom was successfully utilized for entrance surface dose (ESD) and image quality assessments in anterior-posterior (AP) radiographs.

Conclusions:

• A validated anatomical and radiological neonatal chest phantom was successfully designed and constructed.
• The phantom serves as a valuable tool for research in diagnostic radiology, specifically for neonatal chest imaging.
• This phantom facilitates investigations into patient dose reduction and optimization of imaging protocols for infants.