Comparative study on the material and method of new 3d printer when making phantom for mammography

Abstract

Background/Objectives: this study aims, first, to find soft materials like breast made by 3D printer, and, second, to model mammary duct, mammary gland, and pectoralis major muscle separately. Methods/Statistical analysis: after smoothing the surface, we subtracted mammary gland tissue, mammary duct tissue, pectoralis major muscle tissue, and pectoralis minor muscle tissue, and converted them into STL for printing. It took seven days to pour and harden mold into a form. To get clear radiation images of mammary gland tissue and mammary duct tissue, we used contrast media.This study tried various contrast media to compare images. Findings: The modeling is completed by merging mammary gland, mammary duct, pectoralis major muscle, and pectoralis minor muscle parts, and comparing two types of modeling to examine whether the types of modeling do not make any difference in anatomical locations of human body. And while pectoralis major muscle and pectoralis minor muscle tissues were not shown in radiation images, mammary duct tissue could be identified in the radiation image. Improvements/Applications: we adopted the mold method to express fat among various breast tissues, and various contrast media to express mammary gland in breast.