Fig. 1

Design and 3D printing of pituitary gland phantom and associated tumors. CAD 2D sketch of pituitary gland design (A). The pituitary gland was approximated as an ellipse with a length of 16 mm and a height of 9 mm. The tumors were spherical with diameters of 2, 4 and 6 mm. So that the tumors could be embedded into the pituitary gland, three more designs were made with 2.1-, 4.1- and 6.1-mm spherical indentations. Using the revolve function, the face of the design (highlighted in blue) (B) was revolved around the horizontal axis to create 3D ellipsoids with and without indentations (C). The objects were exported as STL files (D) and loaded into PrusaSlicer to be prepared for printing (E). After printing the pituitary gland and tumors with different radioactive concentrations, these were combined to create pituitary glands containing tumors of different contrast (F)