3D Printed Lung Phantom for Individual Monitoring.

Area of Science:

• Medical Physics
• Radiological Health
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• The Human Monitoring Laboratory (HML) in Canada utilizes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) foam lung sets for calibrating lung-counting systems.
• Existing foam lung sets are costly, difficult to replace, and prone to wear and contamination, necessitating an improved solution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To re-engineer and validate 3D-printed lung sets as a cost-effective and durable alternative to existing foam lung sets.
• To assess the performance and accuracy of 3D-printed lung sets compared to traditional foam sets for lung counting applications.

Main Methods:

• Modeled new blank lung sets using 3D printing technology based on existing Radiology Support Devices (RSD) foam lung sets.
• Conducted comparative efficiency measurements using natural uranium (Nat U), 241Am, and 152Eu planar inserts with both foam and 3D-printed lung sets.
• Utilized the LLNL chest phantom in identical counting geometries for both sets within the lung counting system.

Main Results:

• 3D-printed lung sets were created as nearly identical, inexpensive, and easily manufactured copies of the original RSD foam sets.
• Efficiency measurements showed biases below 15% between foam and 3D-printed sets for energies above 40 KeV.
• The 3D-printed lung sets demonstrated comparable performance to the original foam sets.

Conclusions:

• 3D-printed lung sets offer a viable, cost-effective, and easily manufactured alternative to traditional foam lung sets for lung performance testing.
• The HML has adopted the 3D-printed lung sets for its lung performance testing program due to their comparable accuracy, cost benefits, and ease of use.