Novel Multimodal Breast Phantoms vs. Real: Even Experts Can't Tell the Difference.
Current research on rapid breast cancer screening emphasizes the importance of hybrid sensing methods, such as Tactile Imaging and Ultrasound. However, the lack of phantoms designed to support both modalities simultaneously hinders their development. This study evaluates the realism and imaging performance of a novel multi-material breast phantom through expert visual assessment. Ultrasound and tactile imaging experts analyzed 16 images-both cadaveric and phantom-identifying them as real or synthetic, rating confidence levels, and noting distinguishing features. A confusion matrix was used to calculate the true positive rate (TPR), which reflected the correct identification of cadaveric images, and the false positive rate (FPR), which indicated instances where a phantom was misclassified as real. The mean TPR values were 0.46 for ultrasound and 0.4 for tactile imaging, highlighting the challenge of distinguishing between the two. Experts identified key features, such as noise, smoothness, and structural irregularities, but often struggled to confidently differentiate real from synthetic tissue.Clinical Relevance- This study introduces visual observation as a valuable evaluation method, expanding training phantom development beyond material property measurements. The phantom's realism supports testing, training, and optimization of hybrid imaging devices and imaging protocols while facilitating further research on combined ultrasound and tactile imaging techniques for clinical integration.