ALICANTE, 8 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Technological Institute of Children’s and Leisure Products (AIJU) has worked on a project to determine a methodology and develop functional ultra-realistic anatomical biomodels, obtained through additive manufacturing, which can be used to carry out different quality and safety controls of health care units. radiotherapy.
This is the DAP4MED project, which is financed by the Institut Valencià de Competitivitat Empresarial (Ivace) and for which AIJU, in collaboration with PTW Dosimetry, has created the biomodels, as indicated by the technological institute in a statement.
The institution has highlighted that having 3D biomodels with different tissues “can be a great advance” in the field of radiotherapy since, through the use of quality control equipment, the incidence of radiation in the different tissues can be analyzed before of performing any radiotherapy treatment, which “reduces damage to the patient’s healthy tissues.”
Currently, dosimetric verifications to verify the doses delivered in radiotherapy treatments are carried out through the use of mannequins that simulate human anatomy. However, these anthropomorphic mannequins present “certain limitations, since the densities provided are not entirely realistic, compared to those of human tissues.”
Therefore, having 3D biomodels that simulate the different organs that are similar both in appearance and density – in the degree of radiological absorption of the tissue – “will allow the dose received at specific points to be verified and compared with the theoretical planning system dosimetric”.
AIJU has pointed out that before performing the different radiotherapy treatments, it is “important” to personalize each one of them, since each treatment is specific for each patient, taking into account the disease they suffer from and the affected organ.
For this, the adaptation of the absorbed dose “becomes crucial” in this process. To achieve “greater precision” in treatments, the use of biomodels of organs made with materials that imitate human tissues is proposed, allowing a “more realistic” interaction with radiation.
Human tissues are mostly composed of water, with different levels of attenuation, represented on the Hounsfield scale. For this reason, a study is carried out on different formulations of materials to create the biomodels.
Initially, simple models are made and it is verified whether the densities of the materials resemble those of real tissues using a CT scan. If the results are promising, the creation of more complex biomodels that mimic real organs is considered.
AIJU has explained that the goal is not for the biomodels to be accurate, which can also be considered, but for the materials to “behave similarly” to the tissues of the human body to optimize radiotherapy doses.
To this end, the technological institute, in collaboration with PTW Dosimetry, has made biomodels with the appropriate dimensions for dosimetric verifications of the different treatments that will be carried out in the existing linear accelerators in the hospitals’ radiotherapy services.
The manufacturing of materials has focused on three families of tissues: general internal tissue, bone tissue and cardiovascular tissue. With the relevant combination of materials, textures “very similar” to the desired organic structure are achieved.
These similarities in texture and material behavior have been shared and validated by collaborating hospitals. Aiju has specified that these models have a “limited” useful life, due to the durability of the acrylic resins and the radiation tests to which they are subjected.
