Organ Phantoms Research Articles

The Role of 3D-Printed Phantoms and Devices for Organ-specified Appliances in Urology.

Urology is one of the fields that are always at the frontline of bringing scientific advancements into clinical practice, including 3D printing (3DP). This study aims to discuss and presents the current role of 3D-printed phantoms and devices for organ-specified applications in urology. The discussion started with a literature search regarding the two mentioned topics within PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and EBSCOhost databases. 3D-printed urological organ phantoms are reported for providing residents new insight regarding anatomical characteristics of organs, either normal or diseased, in a tangible manner. Furthermore, 3D-printed organ phantoms also helped urologists to prepare a pre-surgical planning strategy with detailed anatomical models of the diseased organs. In some centers, 3DP technology also contributed to developing specified devices for disease management. To date, urologists have been benefitted by 3D-printed phantoms and devices in the education and disease management of organs of in the genitourinary system, including kidney, bladder, prostate, ureter, urethra, penis, and adrenal. It is safe to say that 3DP technology can bring remarkable changes to daily urological practices.

Introduction of Hybrid Additive Manufacturing for Producing Multi-Material Artificial Organs for Education and In Vitro Testing

The evolution of 3D printing has ushered in accessibility and cost-effectiveness, spanning various industries including biomedical engineering, education, and microfluidics. In biomedical engineering, it encompasses bioprinting tissues, producing prosthetics, porous metal orthopedic implants, and facilitating educational models. Hybrid Additive Manufacturing approaches and, more specifically, the integration of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) with bio-inkjet printing offers the advantages of improved accuracy, structural support, and controlled geometry, yet challenges persist in cell survival, interaction, and nutrient delivery within printed structures. The goal of this study was to develop and present a low-cost way to produce physical phantoms of human organs that could be used for research and training, bridging the gap between the use of highly detailed computational phantoms and real-life clinical applications. To this purpose, this study utilized anonymized clinical Computed Tomography (CT) data to create a liver physical model using the Creality Ender-3 printer. Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), and light-bodied silicone (Polysiloxane) materials were employed for printing the liver including its veins and arteries. In brief, PLA was used to create a mold of a liver to be filled with biocompatible light-bodied silicone. Molds of the veins and arteries were printed using PVA and then inserted in the liver model to create empty channel. In addition, the PVA was then washed out by the final product using warm water. Despite minor imperfections due to the printer’s limitations, the final product imitates the computational model accurately enough. Precision adjustments in the design phase compensated for this variation. The proposed novel low-cost 3D printing methodology successfully produced an anatomically accurate liver physical model, presenting promising applications in medical education, research, and surgical planning. Notably, its implications extend to medical training, personalized medicine, and organ transplantation. The technology’s potential includes injection training for medical professionals, personalized anthropomorphic phantoms for radiation therapy, and the future prospect of creating functional living organs for organ transplantation, albeit requiring significant interdisciplinary collaboration and financial investment. This technique, while showcasing immense potential in biomedical applications, requires further advancements and interdisciplinary cooperation for its optimal utilization in revolutionizing medical science and benefiting patient healthcare.

Analysis of 3D printing materials as potential Radiological Phantoms of Lung Organs for medical imaging purposes

Research has been conducted to analyze and characterize ten 3D printing materials as potential Radiological Phantoms of Lung Organs. Eight filaments of PLA, ABS, HIPS, Carbon, Nylon, TPU, PETG, and Wood were printed using an FDM type 3D printer, and two resins, PLA resin and Water washable resin, were printed using an SLA type 3D printer. The phantoms were printed with thickness variations of 3 mm, 6 mm, and 9 mm. 8 parameters were used to obtain the best material, namely material density, CT number, electron density (Ne), effective electron density (EDG), electron density per volume (EDV), effective atomic number (Zeff), material constituent elements, and elastic Modulus. Based on comparing the values of 8 parameters, the most potential to be used as phantom material for lung organs is PLA.

Intelligent robotic sonographer: Mutual information-based disentangled reward learning from few demonstrations

Ultrasound (US) imaging is widely used for biometric measurement and diagnosis of internal organs due to the advantages of being real-time and radiation-free. However, due to inter-operator variations, resulting images highly depend on the experience of sonographers. This work proposes an intelligent robotic sonographer to autonomously “explore” target anatomies and navigate a US probe to standard planes by learning from the expert. The underlying high-level physiological knowledge from experts is inferred by a neural reward function, using a ranked pairwise image comparison approach in a self-supervised fashion. This process can be referred to as understanding the “language of sonography.” Considering the generalization capability to overcome inter-patient variations, mutual information is estimated by a network to explicitly disentangle the task-related and domain features in latent space. The robotic localization is carried out in coarse-to-fine mode based on the predicted reward associated with B-mode images. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed reward inference network, representative experiments were performed on vascular phantoms (“line” target), two types of ex vivo animal organ phantoms (chicken heart and lamb kidney representing “point” target), and in vivo human carotids. To further validate the performance of the autonomous acquisition framework, physical robotic acquisitions were performed on three phantoms (vascular, chicken heart, and lamb kidney). The results demonstrated that the proposed advanced framework can robustly work on a variety of seen and unseen phantoms as well as in vivo human carotid data. Code: https://github.com/yuan-12138/MI-GPSR. Video: https://youtu.be/u4ThAA9onE0.

Photon-counting detector CT-based virtual monoenergetic reconstructions: repeatability and reproducibility of radiomics features of an organic phantom and human myocardium

BackgroundPhoton-counting detector computed tomography (PCD-CT) may influence imaging characteristics for various clinical conditions due to higher signal and contrast-to-noise ratio in virtual monoenergetic images (VMI). Radiomics analysis relies on quantification of image characteristics. We evaluated the impact of different VMI reconstructions on radiomic features in in vitro and in vivo PCD-CT datasets.MethodsAn organic phantom consisting of twelve samples (four oranges, four onions, and four apples) was scanned five times. Twenty-three patients who had undergone coronary computed tomography angiography on a first generation PCD-CT system with the same image acquisitions were analyzed. VMIs were reconstructed at 6 keV levels (40, 55, 70, 90, 120, and 190 keV). The phantoms and the patients’ left ventricular myocardium (LVM) were segmented for all reconstructions. Ninety-three original radiomic features were extracted. Repeatability and reproducibility were evaluated through intraclass correlations coefficient (ICC) and post hoc paired samples ANOVA t test.ResultsThere was excellent repeatability for radiomic features in phantom scans (all ICC = 1.00). Among all VMIs, 36/93 radiomic features (38.7%) in apples, 28/93 (30.1%) in oranges, and 33/93 (35.5%) in onions were not significantly different. For LVM, the percentage of stable features was high between VMIs ≥ 90 keV (90 versus 120 keV, 77.4%; 90 versus 190 keV, 83.9%; 120 versus 190 keV, 89.3%), while comparison to lower VMI levels led to fewer reproducible features (40 versus 55 keV, 8.6%).ConclusionsVMI levels influence the stability of radiomic features in an organic phantom and patients’ LVM; stability decreases considerably below 90 keV.Relevance statementSpectral reconstructions significantly influence radiomic features in vitro and in vivo, necessitating standardization and careful attention to these reconstruction parameters before clinical implementation.Key points• Radiomic features have an excellent repeatability within the same PCD-CT acquisition and reconstruction.• Differences in VMI lead to decreased reproducibility for radiomic features.• VMI ≥ 90 keV increased the reproducibility of the radiomic features.Graphical

Urinary bladder phantom mimicking mechanical properties and pressure during filling

Objective. Phantoms that mimic healthy or diseased organ properties can complement animal models for surgical planning, training, and medical device development. If urodynamic studies rely on pressure-volume curves to assess lower urinary tract symptoms, there is an unsatisfied need for a bladder phantom that accurately mimics the bladder stretching capabilities and compliant behaviour during physiological filling. Approach. We demonstrate the suitability of water-soluble 3D-printed moulds as a versatile method to fabricate accurate phantoms with anatomical structures reconstructed from medical images. We report a phantom fabricated with silicone rubber. A wire net limits the silicone expansion to model the cystometric capacity. A mathematical model describes the pressure increase due to passive hyperelastic properties. Main results. The phantom reproduces the bladder’s mechanical properties during filling. The pressure-volume curve measured on the phantom is typical of cystometric studies, with a compliance of 25.2 ± 1 The root-mean-square error between the theoretical model and experimental data is 2.7 The compliance, bladder wall thickness, cystometric capacity and pressure near the cystometric capacity of the phantom can be tuned to mimic various pathologies or human variability. Significance. The manufacturing method is suitable for fabricating bladder and other soft and hollow organ phantoms. The mathematical model provides a method to determine design parameters to model healthy or diseased bladders. Soft hollow organ phantoms can be used to complement animal experimentations for developing and validating medical devices aiming to be anchored on these organs or monitor their activity through pressure and strain measurement.

Validation of a Monte Carlo simulated cardiac phantom for planar and SPECT studies

PurposeThis work aimed to validate Monte Carlo (MC) simulated cardiac phantoms for the evaluation of planar- and SPECT-gated-blood-pool (GBP-P and GBP-S) studies. MethodsA comparison of gamma camera system performance criteria measurements (energy resolution, spatial resolution, sensitivity) with MC simulations was conducted. Furthermore, the accuracy of measured and simulated volumes of two stereolithography-printed cardiac phantoms (based on 4D-XCAT phantoms) was assessed. Finally, the simulated GBP-P and GBP-S XCAT studies were validated by comparing calculated left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and ventricle volume values with known parameters. ResultsThe simulated performance criteria compared well with measured values (energy resolution difference: 0.1 ± 0.10%; spatial resolution (full width at half maximum) difference ≤ 0.5 ± 0.8 mm and system sensitivity difference ≤ 6.2 ± 0.62cps/MBq). The measured and simulated cardiac phantoms were in good agreement; the left anterior oblique views compared well. This is supported by line profiles through these phantoms and on average, simulated counts were 5.8% lower than measured counts. The LVEF values calculated from the GBP-P and GBP-S simulated data differ from known values (2.8 ± 0.64% and 0.8 ± 0.52%). The differences between the known XCAT LV volumes and simulated GBP-S calculated volumes were −1.2 ± 1.91 ml and −1.5 ± 0.96 ml for the end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes. ConclusionThe MC-simulated cardiac phantom has been validated successfully. Stereolithography-printing allows researchers to create clinically realistic organ phantoms and is a valuable tool for validating MC simulations and clinical software. By conducting GBP simulation studies with various XCAT models, the user will be able to generate GBP-P and GBP-S databases for future software evaluation.

Engineering Tridimensional Hydrogel Tissue and Organ Phantoms with Tunable Springiness

AbstractBiomimicking organ phantoms with vivid biological structures and soft and slippery features are essential for in vitro biomedical applications yet remain hither to unmet challenges in their fabrication such as balancing between spatial structural complexity and matchable mechanical properties. Herein, 3D printable tissue‐mimicking elastomeric double network hydrogels with tailorable stiffness are evolved to idiosyncratically match diverse biological soft tissues by regulating the compositions of hydrogel matrix and the density of metal coordination bonds. Relying on digital light processing 3D printing, various mechanically tunable biomimetic volumetric hydrogel organ constructs with structural complexity and fidelity, including kidney, brain, heart, liver, stomach, lung, trachea, intestine, and even the intricate vascularized tissues, are fabricated faultlessly. Proof‐of‐concept 3D printed hydrogel heart and liver phantoms provide sophisticated internal channels and cavity structures and external realistic anatomical architectures that more closely mimic native organs. For the in vitro application demonstration, a 3D printed hydrogel brain phantom with tortuous cerebral arteries and slippery characters serves as an effective neurosurgical training platform for realistic simulation of endovascular interventions. This platform offers a means to construct mechanically precisely tunable hydrogel‐based biomimetic organ phantoms that are expected to be used in surgical training, medical device testing, and organs‐on‐chips.

A High-Fidelity Artificial Urological System for the Quantitative Assessment of Endoscopic Skills.

Minimally-invasive surgery is rapidly growing and has become a standard approach for many operations. However, it requires intensive practice to achieve competency. The current training often relies on animal organ models or physical organ phantoms, which do not offer realistic surgical scenes or useful real-time feedback for surgeons to improve their skills. Furthermore, the objective quantitative assessment of endoscopic skills is also lacking. Here, we report a high-fidelity artificial urological system that allows realistic simulation of endourological procedures and offers a quantitative assessment of the surgical performance. The physical organ model was fabricated by 3D printing and two-step polymer molding with the use of human CT data. The system resembles the human upper urinary tract with a high-resolution anatomical shape and vascular patterns. During surgical simulation, endoscopic videos are acquired and analyzed to quantitatively evaluate performance skills by a customized computer algorithm. Experimental results show significant differences in the performance between professional surgeons and trainees. The surgical simulator offers a unique chance to train endourological procedures in a realistic and safe environment, and it may also lead to a quantitative standard to evaluate endoscopic skills.

Repeatability and reproducibility of MRI-radiomic features: A phantom experiment on a 1.5T scanner.

Aim of this study is to assess the repeatability of radiomic features on magnetic resonance images (MRI) and their stability to variations in time of repetition (TR), time of echo (TE), slice thickness (ST), and pixel spacing (PS) using vegetable phantoms. The organic phantom was realized using two cucumbers placed inside a cylindrical container, and the analysis was performed using T1-weighted (T1w), T2-weighted (T2w), and diffusion-weighted images. One dataset was used to test the repeatability of the radiomic features, whereas other four datasets were used to test the sensitivity of the different MRI sequences to image acquisition parameters (TR, TE, ST, and PS). Four regions of interest (ROIs) were segmented: two for the central part of each cucumber and two for the external parts. Radiomic features were extracted from each ROI using Pyradiomics. To assess the effect of preprocessing on the reduction of variability, features were extracted both before and after the preprocessing. The coefficient of variation (CV) and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to evaluate variability. The use of intensity standardization increased the stability for the first-order statistics features. Shape and size features were always stable for all the analyses. Textural features were particularly sensitive to changes in ST and PS, although some increase in stability could be obtained by voxel size resampling. When images underwent image preprocessing, the number of stable features (ICC>0.75 and mean absolute CV<0.3) was 33 for apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), 52 for T1w, and 73 for T2w. The most critical source of variability is related to changes in voxel size (either caused by changes in ST or PS). Preprocessing increases features stability to both test-retest and variation of the image acquisition parameters for all the types of analyzed MRI (T1w, T2w, and ADC), except for ST.

Simulation-based prostate enucleation training: Initial experience using 3D-printed organ phantoms.

Anatomical endoscopic enucleation of the prostate (AEEP) is an effective treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); however, there is controversy regarding the difficulty of learning such a technique. Simulation-based training can mimic real-life surgeries and help surgeons develop skills they can transfer to the operating room, thereby improving patient safety. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of a novel organ phantom for use in AEEP simulation training. Participants performed AEEP on organ phantom simulators during a Masterclass using one of three energy modalities: holmium:YAG laser, thulium fiber laser, or bipolar energy. The organ phantom is composed of hydrogels and uses 3D molds to recreate prostatic tissue. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing content validity, face validity, feasibility, and acceptability of using the prostate organ phantom. The novice group consisted of 13 urologists. The median number of AEEP previously performed was 0 (interquartile range [IQR] 0-2). Two experts in AEEP (surgeons having performed over 100 AEEP interventions) also participated. All participants agreed or strongly agreed that there is a role for simulators in AEEP training. Participants positively rated the overall operative experience (7.3/10). Morcellation (4.7/10) and hemostasis (3.1/10) were deemed the least realistic steps. All participants considered it feasible to incorporate this organ phantom into training programs and 92.9% agreed that it teaches skills transferrable to the operating room. This study has established content and face validity for AEEP with three different energy sources for an organ phantom. Participants considered its use both feasible and appropriate for AEEP training purposes.

Tissue-mimicking phantom materials with tunable optical properties suitable for assessment of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy during electrosurgery.

Emerging intraoperative tumor margin assessment techniques require the development of more complex and reliable organ phantoms to assess the performance of the technique before its translation into the clinic. In this work, electrically conductive tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) based on fat, water and agar/gelatin were produced with tunable optical properties. The composition of the phantoms allowed for the assessment of tumor margins using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, as the fat/water ratio served as a discriminating factor between the healthy and malignant tissue. Moreover, the possibility of using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or transglutaminase in combination with fat, water and gelatin for developing TMMs was studied. The diffuse spectral response of the developed phantom materials had a good match with the spectral response of porcine muscle and adipose tissue, as well as in vitro human breast tissue. Using the developed recipe, anatomically relevant heterogeneous breast phantoms representing the optical properties of different layers of the human breast were fabricated using 3D-printed molds. These TMMs can be used for further development of phantoms applicable for simulating the realistic breast conserving surgery workflow in order to evaluate the intraoperative optical-based tumor margin assessment techniques during electrosurgery.

OL99 - Organic phantom study of MRI-radiomic features repeatability and stability

OL99 - Organic phantom study of MRI-radiomic features repeatability and stability

Soft-tissue-mimicking using silicones for the manufacturing of soft phantoms by fresh 3D printing

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to use the Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) additive manufacturing (AM) technique for manufacturing a liver phantom which can mimic the corresponding soft living tissue. One of the possible applications is surgical planning.Design/methodology/approachA thermo-reversible Pluronic® F-127-based support bath is used for the FRESH technique. To verify how three-dimensional (3D)-printed new materials can mimic liver tissue, dynamic mechanical analysis and oscillation shear rheometry tests are carried out to identify mechanical characteristics of different 3D printed silicone samples. Additionally, the differential scanning calorimetry was done on the silicone samples. Then, a validation of a 3D printed silicone liver phantom is performed with a 3D scanner. Finally, the surface topography of the 3D printed liver phantom was fulfiled and microscopy analysis of its surface.FindingsSilicone samples were able to mimic the liver, therefore obtaining the first soft phantom of the liver using the FRESH technique.Practical implicationsBecause of the use of soft silicones, surgeons could practice over these improved phantoms which have an unprecedented degree of living tissue mimicking, enhancing their rehearsal experience before surgery.Social implicationsAn improvement in surgeons surgery skills would lead to a bettering in the patient outcome.Originality/valueThe first research study was carried out to mimic soft tissue and apply it to the 3D printing of organ phantoms using AM FRESH technique.

Human organ phantoms for catheterization using the radiation crosslinking technique

AbstractAn artificial organ based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel was developed to train medical staff to improve their ablation therapy skills, by using the radiation cross‐linking technique. The aqueous PVA solution was irradiated with γ‐rays or electron beams to produce a highly transparent, high‐strength, and flexible crosslinked hydrogel without using a crosslinking agent. Physical properties of the hydrogel, such as, gel fraction, swelling, and elastic modulus, were controlled by changing the radiation dose. The catheter ablation region on the surface of the cardiac phantom produced from PVA hydrogel with temperature‐responsive pigment inks can be visually identified by the color change. The tumor organ phantom consists of the PVA hydrogel with the purple pigment ink (healthy organ site) and red PVA hydrogel with cellulose (the tumor sites) was developed by applying this radiation crosslinking technique. The positions of the tumor hydrogel and the ablation electrode needle can be confirmed through ultrasound echography. It is possible to practice ablation on the tumor site while observing the echo images under conditions similar to the actual treatment. These novel human organ phantoms are created as a means for ablation training for treating cardiac arrhythmia and liver cancer using the radiation crosslinking technology.

Method of beam forming for analyzed breast cancer image by composite based test-beds

The Minimum Variance Distortion-less Response (MVDR) algorithm, discussed in this paper, describes a diagnostic imaging image of breast cancer. The purpose of this research is really to develop Ultra Wide Band based on the Microwave Images (UWB-MI) system to improve the image of breast cancer. The implemented test bed combines multiple wearable prototypes equivalent to the composite materials for the breast organ. The dispersion signal from the transceiver port generated by Agilent Microwave Analyzer offers different strengths (N99917A). The wearable prototypes consist of an antenna of the 3 × 3 array, which offers an effective use of the bandwidth. These test beds made the processing of the signal possible. Furthermore, composite materials developed the human biological breast organ phantom model. The received signal port has collected the signal force received (RSS) from the transmitter port Directorate of Arrival (DOA). Thus the DOA signal strength estimates the Power Spectral Density approximation (PSD). Thus the two-dimensional power spectral density image has removed the buried lines with different cancer resolutions from the cancerous organ. This research therefore presented the diagnostic images with simulation scenarios under different test beds.

Development and Testing of an Ultrasound-Compatible Cardiac Phantom for Interventional Procedure Simulation Using Direct Three-Dimensional Printing.

Organ phantoms are widely used for evaluating medical technologies, training clinical practitioners, as well as surgical planning. In the context of cardiovascular disease, a patient-specific cardiac phantom can play an important role for interventional cardiology procedures. However, phantoms with complicated structures are difficult to fabricate by conventional manufacturing methods. The emergence of three-dimensional (3D) printing with soft materials provides the opportunity to produce phantoms with complex geometries and realistic properties. In this work, the aim was to explore the use of a direct 3D printing technique to produce multimodal imaging cardiac phantoms and to test the physical properties of the new materials used, namely the Poro-Lay series and TangoPlus. The cardiac phantoms were first modeled using real data segmented from a patient chest computer tomography (CT) scan and then printed with the novel materials. They were then tested quantitatively in terms of stiffness and ultrasound (US) acoustic values and qualitatively with US, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging systems. From the stiffness measurements, Lay-fomm 40 had the closest Young's modulus to real myocardium with an error of 29–54%, while TangoPlus had the largest difference. From the US acoustics measurements, Lay-fomm 40 also demonstrated the closest soft tissue-mimicking properties with both the smallest attenuation and impedance differences. Furthermore, the imaging results show that the phantoms are compatible with multiple imaging modalities and thus have potential to be used for interventional procedure simulation and testing of novel interventional devices. In conclusion, direct 3D printing with Poro-Lay and TangoPlus is a promising method for manufacture of multimodal imaging phantoms with complicated structures, especially for soft patient-specific phantoms.

Exploring realistic haptics for 3D-printed organ phantoms in surgery training in VR and AR

Virtual (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) represent excellent tools for surgeons to understand spatial relationships, to train their workflow to improve surgery results. By providing realistic haptic feedback, implementing 3D-printed organ phantoms to those tools, their benefit gets even more compelling, increasing their immersion. In this work investigates the realism of organ phantoms regarding physical hardness, touch and feel. In a user study with 12 surgeons, we evaluated casted liver phantoms in 50 %, scale of the actual liver size. Results from surgeons allowed the configuration of a measurement tool for exact exploration of realistic haptics within this context.

Uniaxial compression testing and Cauchy stress modeling to design anatomical silicone replicas

Anatomically realistic organ replicas or phantoms allow for accurate studies and reproducible research. To recreate a human kidney, mimicry of the elastic properties of the human kidney is crucial. However, none of the related work addressed the design and development of a kidney phantom using only silicone as material. In contrast to paraffin and hydrogel, silicone is an ideal variant for its extended shelf life, soft-tissue-like feeling, and viscoelastic modularity. To this end, we conducted Uniaxial Compression testing and Cauchy stress modeling. Results indicate that none of the available manufacturer silicone brands are suitable for the task of creating a realistic kidney phantom. Indeed, the tested silicone mixtures in low and high strain fall outside the required approximate target compressive moduli of 20 kPa and 500 kPa, respectively. This work provides a frame of reference for future work by avoiding the pitfalls of the selected ready-made silicones and reusing the reported theoretical and experimental setup to design a realistic replica of the kidney organ.

The characterization of PVA/PHY hydrogels for 3D printing fabrication of organ phantoms

Phantoms are widely used substitutes for various types of soft tissues with mechanically and anatomically matching properties. They can be used as advanced tools for training before the surgical manipulation on human organs such as the brain or liver as part of complex operation planning and preparation. We report 3D printing fabrication and characterization of hydrogel composites based on the combination of two biocompatible materials, namely, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and phytagel (PHY). The hydrogels were used for the fabrication of brain phantoms in a multistage procedure based around 3D printing. The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the simple, low cost and relatively fast procedure for the creation of hydrogel organ phantoms of high anatomical and mechanical fidelity made from commonly available materials. To this end, three different types of samples were produced to illustrate the flexibility of hydrogel-based 3D printing approach in mimicking the mechanical properties of human organs: brain, lung, and liver soft tissues. The mechanical response was studied using Deben MicroTest 1 kN mechanical testing device and Q800 Dynamic Mechanical Analyser in compression mode. The results reveal close matching of the dynamic non-linear mechanical response of the phantoms to those of the corresponding natural soft tissues.