{
  "abstract": "Objectives: To assess the non-inferiority of low-cost homemade agar-based phantoms compared to commercial models regarding students' self-reported confidence and performance in basic ultrasound-guided procedures. Materials and methods: This randomized controlled study was conducted at a single university in June 2025, during interventional radiology (IR) resident training sessions. Participants were all consecutive students randomized 2:1 to either agar-based or commercial phantoms. Phantoms were designed to simulate deep collection puncture and vascular access. Participants completed technical assessments and questionnaires before and after the training. Results: Twenty-three residents (8 male [35%]; median residency semester [IQR], 2 [2-4]) were included and randomized to the agar-based group (n = 15) or the commercial phantom group (n = 8). Students increased their self-reported confidence in basic procedures from 3.7 ± 2.4 to 6.2 ± 1.7 out of 10 (+ 2.5 points; p < 0.01), with non-inferiority of agar-based models confirmed (p = 0.04). Procedure time improved by 135 ± 174 s (p < 0.01), with non-inferiority demonstrated for deep collection puncture test (p = 0.04). The number of punctures decreased by 0.6 ± 0.7 (p = 0.04) for this test, again with non-inferiority confirmed for agar phantoms (p = 0.02). Overall interest in IR was high (7.1 ± 2.2 /10), particularly for Level-1 procedures (8.6 ± 1.3/10). Students trained with agar models expressed high satisfaction, rating their support for using such models in educational settings at 8.9 ± 1.3/10. Conclusion: Low-cost homemade agar-based phantoms appeared to be non-inferior to commercial models for confidence improvement, but not for all performance outcomes in this small sample. However, they significantly improved trainees' performance during ultrasound-guided intervention training.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Manuel Gargiulo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Cécile Di-Rocco"
    },
    {
      "name": "Julien Doche"
    },
    {
      "name": "Laure Boyer"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jérôme Soussan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Julien Frandon"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pauline Brige"
    },
    {
      "name": "Vincent Vidal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Farouk Tradi"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af4fpvxsrtdx5.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.ejrad.2026.112934",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "af4fpvxsrtdx5",
  "issns": [
    "0720-048X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://amu.hal.science/hal-05737902v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.sdv"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "1.sdv.ib"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "1.sdv.mhep"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "2.sdv.ib.ima"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2746|Surgical Simulation and Training"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7161118593",
  "pdf_url": "https://amu.hal.science/hal-05737902/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-05-13",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af4fpvxsrtdx5.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:27Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05737902",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://amu.hal.science/hal-05737902v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "hal:1.sdv.ib",
      "subfield": "systems-synthetic"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "hal:2.sdv.ib.ima",
      "subfield": "imaging"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Low-Cost homemade Agar-Based phantoms for Ultrasound-Guided procedure Training: A randomized educational trial",
  "title_text": "Low-Cost homemade Agar-Based phantoms for Ultrasound-Guided procedure Training: A randomized educational trial",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:27Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/af4fpvxsrtdx5",
  "venue": "European Journal of Radiology",
  "versions": []
}