Take-Apart PIXY Phantom

Offered in opaque or transparent, Take-Apart Pixy is an anatomically and radiologically correct female designed specifically for training radiologic technologists. At 5’ 1” (156 cm) weighing 105 lbs (48 kg), Take-Apart Pixy is a repeatable, convenient substitute for patients and virtually indestructible.

Take-Apart Pixy may be ordered with or without abdominal and pelvic organs: stomach, gall bladder, urinary bladder, kidneys, rectum, and sigmoid flexure. The organs are air-filled but accept water or contrast media that can be easily flushed after use. Custom pathologies and traumas available at an additional cost.

Built with soft-tissue mold and skeleton molds that are matched for anatomic fidelity, Take-Apart Pixy permits unlimited exposures, demonstrates the effects of changing technical factors, and allows for evaluation of student performance. Students have no difficulty in maneuvering Take-Apart Pixy into most desired positions as the phantom is built to tolerate trainee errors.

Applications

Teaching & training of patient positioning
Image quality
Diagnostic radiology
Dosimetry verification
Protocol verification

Modalities

CT
X-Ray
Fluoroscopy

Anatomy

Shoulders have ball and socket joints
Elbows and knees flex 90° to 100°
A “frog position” is possible at the hips
Right hand is molded with fingers positioned for an AP view
Left hand is in an oblique-lateral position
Feet are in natural position

Take-Apart Pixy is used to demonstrate anatomy and evaluate positioning and imaging techniques, including kVp, mAs, contrast, optical density, digital processing, OFD and TFD. Made of tissue-equivalent materials and life-like articulations, Take-Apart Pixy is more realistic than a cadaveric skeleton with radiographs that are optically equivalent in density and contrast to human patients.

C1, C2, C6, and C7 were converted to mechanical nylon joints because educators in the field prefer full positioning capabilities for the head. This design permits the remaining neck vertebrae to be fixed in a normal position, while assuring a full range of head motion.

The skull of Take-Apart Pixy has frontal and sphenoidal sinuses, ethmoidal and mastoid air cells, and the auditory ossicles. Bone sutures are radiographically visible.

Soft tissues are available in opaque or transparent tissue-equivalent materials. The transparent Take-Apart Pixy has visible organs and skeleton.

Take-Apart Pixy lungs are molded of tissue-equivalent foam with the mass density of inflated human lungs (0.30 g/cc). They are connected to the oro-nasal cavity by the stem bronchi and trachea. The oro-nasal pharynx is filled with a nearly air-equivalent foam.