Phantom AND cryogel

This work presents an affordable and easily customizable methodology for phantom manufacturing, which can be used to mimic different anatomic organs and structures. This methodology is based on the use of polyvinyl alcohol-based cryogels as a physical substitute for biologic soft tissues and of 3-D printed polymers for hard tissues, moulding and supporting elements. Thin and durable soft-tissue mimicking layers and multilayer arrangements can be obtained using these materials. Special attention was paid to the acoustic properties (sound speed, attenuation coefficient and mechanical impedance) of the materials developed to simulate soft tissues...

Ultrasound (US) elastography, or elasticity imaging, is an adjunct imaging technique that utilizes sequential US images of soft tissues to measure the tissue motion and infer or quantify the underlying biomechanical characteristics. For abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), biomechanical properties such as changes in the tissue's elastic modulus and estimates of the tissue stress may be essential for assessing the need for the surgical intervention. Abdominal aortic aneurysms US elastography could be a useful tool to monitor AAA progression and identify changes in biomechanical properties characteristic of high-risk patients...

Non-invasive vascular elastography can evaluate the stiffness of the carotid artery by visualizing the vascular strain distribution. Axial strain estimates of the longitudinal cross section of the carotid artery are sensitive to the angle between the artery and the transducer. Anatomical variations in branching and arching of the carotid artery can affect the assessment of arterial stiffness. In this study, we hypothesized that principal strain elastograms computed using compounded plane wave imaging can reliably visualize the strain distribution in the carotid artery, independent of the transducer angle...

Regional wall stiffening and thickening are two common pathological features of arteries. To account for these two features, we developed a new arterial phantom design framework to facilitate the development of vessel models that contain a lesion segment whose wall stiffness and thickness differ from those of other segments. This new framework is based on multi-part injection molding principles that sequentially casted the lesion segment and the flank segments of the vessel model using molding parts devised with computer-aided design tools...

Mechanical and morphological characterization of atherosclerotic lesions in carotid arteries remains an essential step for the evaluation of rupture prone plaques and the prevention of strokes. In this paper, we propose a noninvasive vascular imaging modulography (NIV-iMod) method, which is capable of reconstructing a heterogeneous Young's modulus distribution of a carotid plaque from the Von Mises strain elastogram. Elastograms were computed with noninvasive ultrasound images using the Lagrangian speckle model estimator and a dynamic segmentation-optimization procedure to highlight mechanical heterogeneities...

BACKGROUND: Several authors have presented cardiac phantoms to mimic the particularities of the heart, making it suitable for medical training and surgical planning. Although the initial models were mainly focused on the ventricles, personalized phantoms of the atria were recently presented. However, such models are typically rigid, the atrial wall is not realistic and they are not compatible with ultrasound (US), being sub-optimal for planning/training of several interventions. METHODS: In this work, we propose a strategy to construct a patient-specific atrial model...

BACKGROUND: Studies have identified hemodynamic shear stress as an important determinant of endothelial function and atherosclerosis. In this study, we assess the influences of hemodynamic shear stress on carotid plaques. METHODS: Carotid stenosis phantoms with three severity (30, 50, 70%) were made from 10% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cryogel. The phantoms were placed in a pulsatile flow loop with the same systolic/diastolic phase (35/65) and inlet flow rate (16 L/h)...

Transabdominal ultrasound elasticity imaging could improve the assessment of rupture risk for abdominal aortic aneurysms by providing information on the mechanical properties and stress or strain states of vessel walls. We implemented a non-rigid image registration method to visualize the pressure-normalized strain within vascular tissues and adapted it to measure total strain over an entire cardiac cycle. We validated the algorithm's performance with both simulated ultrasound images with known principal strains and anatomically accurate heterogeneous polyvinyl alcohol cryogel vessel phantoms...

In external beam radiation therapy (EBRT), skin dose measurement is important to evaluate dose coverage of superficial target volumes. Treatment planning systems (TPSs) are often inaccurate in this region of the patient, so in vivo measurements are necessary for skin surface dose estimation. In this work, superficial dose distributions were measured using radiochromic translucent poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogels. The cryogels simultaneously served as bolus material, providing the necessary buildup to achieve the desired superficial dose...

Ultrasound (US)-guided interventions are often enhanced via integration with an augmented reality environment, a necessary component of which is US calibration. Calibration requires the segmentation of fiducials, i.e., a phantom, in US images. Fiducial localization error (FLE) can decrease US calibration accuracy, which fundamentally affects the total accuracy of the interventional guidance system. Here, we investigate the effects of US image reconstruction techniques as well as phantom material and geometry on US calibration...

Chest wall radiation therapy treatment delivery was monitored using a 5 mm thick radiochromic poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel that also provided buildup material. The cryogels were used to detect positioning errors and measure the impact of shifts for a chest wall treatment that was delivered to a RANDO phantom. The phantom was shifted by ±2,±3, and ±5 mm from the planned position in the anterior/posterior (A/P) direction; these shifts represent setup errors and the uncertainty associated with lung filling during breath-hold...

Flow phantoms with anatomically realistic geometry and high acoustic compatibility are valuable investigative tools in vascular ultrasound studies. Here, we present a new framework to fabricate ultrasound-compatible flow phantoms to replicate human vasculature that is tortuous, non-planar and branching in nature. This framework is based upon the integration of rapid prototyping and investment casting principles. A pedagogical walkthrough of our engineering protocol is presented in this paper using a patient-specific cerebral aneurysm model as an exemplar demonstration...

Flow phantoms with anatomically realistic geometry and high acoustic compatibility are valuable investigative tools in vascular ultrasound studies. Here, we present a new framework to fabricate ultrasound-compatible flow phantoms to replicate human vasculature that is tortuous, nonplanar, and branching in nature. This framework is based upon the integration of rapid prototyping and investment casting principles. A pedagogical walkthrough of our engineering protocol is presented in this paper using a patient-specific cerebral aneurysm model as an exemplar demonstration...

Chest wall radiation therapy treatment delivery was monitored using a 5 mm thick radiochromic poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel that also provided buildup material. The cryogels were used to detect positioning errors and measure the impact of shifts for a chest wall treatment that was delivered to a RANDO phantom. The phantom was shifted by ± 2, ± 3, and ± 5 mm from the planned position in the anterior/posterior (A/P) direction; these shifts represent setup errors and the uncertainty associated with lung filling during breath-hold...

Quantitative and accurate measurement of in vivo mechanical properties using dynamic elastography has been the scope of many research efforts over the past two decades. Most of the shear-wave-based inverse approaches for magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) make the assumption of isotropic viscoelasticity. In this paper, we propose a quantitative gradient method for inversion of the shear wave equation in anisotropic media derived from a full waveform description using analytical viscoelastic Green formalism and automatic differentiation...

This study presents the first observation of shear waves induced remotely within soft tissues. It was performed through the combination of a transcranial magnetic stimulation device and a permanent magnet. A physical model based on Maxwell and Navier equations was developed. Experiments were performed on a cryogel phantom and a chicken breast sample. Using an ultrafast ultrasound scanner, shear waves of respective amplitudes of 5 and 0.5 μm were observed. Experimental and numerical results were in good agreement...

Pulse wave imaging (PWI) is an ultrasound-based method to visualize the propagation of pulse wave and to quantitatively estimate regional pulse wave velocity (PWV) of the arteries within the imaging field of view (FOV). To guarantee the reliability of PWV measurement, high frame rate imaging is required, which can be achieved by reducing the line density of ultrasound imaging or transmitting plane wave at the expense of spatial resolution and/or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this study, a composite, full-view imaging method using motion matching was proposed with both high temporal and spatial resolution...

Medical phantoms are frequently required to verify image and signal processing systems, and are often used to support algorithm development for a wide range of imaging and blood flow assessments. A phantom with accurate scattering properties is a crucial requirement when assessing the effects of multi-path propagation channels during the development of complex signal processing techniques for Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound. The simulation of physiological blood flow in a phantom with tissue and blood equivalence can be achieved using a variety of techniques...

PURPOSE: To assess the feasibility of multiplanar vascular navigation with a new magnetically assisted remote-controlled (MARC) catheter with real-time magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 1.5 T and 3 T and to compare it with standard x-ray guidance in simulated endovascular catheterization procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 1.6-mm-diameter custom clinical-grade microcatheter prototype with lithographed double-saddle coils at the distal tip was deflected with real-time MR imaging...

Shear wave elastography imaging techniques provide quantitative measurement of soft tissues elastic properties. Tendons, muscles and cerebral tissues are composed of fibers, which induce a strong anisotropic effect on the mechanical behavior. Currently, these tissues cannot be accurately represented by existing elastography phantoms. Recently, a novel approach for orthotropic hydrogel mimicking soft tissues has been developed (Millon et al 2006 J. Biomed. Mater. Res. B 305-11). The mechanical anisotropy is induced in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cryogel by stretching the physical crosslinks of the polymeric chains while undergoing freeze/thaw cycles...