Development and Initial Evaluation of 3D-printed High Resolution Brain Phantom for PET.

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Radiological Physics

Background:

• Existing brain phantoms lack the anatomical detail needed for high-resolution PET systems.
• Next-generation PET scanners require phantoms with superior fidelity for accurate performance assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the HYDRA-OL phantom for high-resolution brain PET imaging.
• To enable accurate assessment of spatial resolution and gray/white matter contrast.

Main Methods:

• Developed HYDRA-OL phantoms using 3D printing based on the BigBrain atlas.
• Created gray matter only (HYDRA-OL_G) and gray/white matter (HYDRA-OL_GW) versions.
• Validated anatomical accuracy with CT and assessed spatial resolution on four PET systems.

Main Results:

• HYDRA-OL phantoms demonstrated precise anatomical fidelity and repositioning accuracy.
• NeuroEXPLORER (NX) and Focus220 PET systems showed superior spatial resolution.
• Successfully generated variable gray matter:white matter contrast ratios (4:1, 2:1, 4:3).

Conclusions:

• The HYDRA phantom platform accurately represents human brain anatomy for PET imaging.
• This versatile tool is ideal for evaluating image resolution and optimizing reconstruction for advanced PET systems.