Poly(vinyl alcohol) gels as photoacoustic breast phantoms revisited

Wenfeng Xia; Daniele Piras; Michelle Heijblom; Wiendelt Steenbergen; Ton G. van Leeuwen; Srirang Manohar

doi:10.1117/1.3597616

1 July 2011 Poly(vinyl alcohol) gels as photoacoustic breast phantoms revisited

Wenfeng Xia, Daniele Piras, Michelle Heijblom, Wiendelt Steenbergen, Ton G. van Leeuwen, Srirang Manohar

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 16, Issue 7, 075002 (July 2011). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3597616

Abstract

A popular phantom in photoacoustic imaging is poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel fabricated by freezing and thawing (F-T) aqueous solutions of PVA. The material possesses acoustic and optical properties similar to those of tissue. Earlier work characterized PVA gels in small test specimens where temperature distributions during F-T are relatively homogeneous. In this work, in breast-sized samples we observed substantial temperature differences between the shallow regions and the interior during the F-T procedure. We investigated whether spatial variations were also present in the acoustic and optical properties. The speed of sound, acoustic attenuation, and optical reduced scattering coefficients were measured on specimens sampled at various locations in a large phantom. In general, the properties matched values quoted for breast tissue. But while acoustic properties were relatively homogeneous, the reduced scattering was substantially different at the surface compared with the interior. We correlated these variations with gel microstructure inspected using scanning electron microscopy. Interestingly, the phantom's reduced scattering spatial distribution matches the optical properties of the standard two-layer breast model used in x ray dosimetry. We conclude that large PVA samples prepared using the standard recipe make excellent breast tissue phantoms.

©(2011) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Wenfeng Xia, Daniele Piras, Michelle Heijblom, Wiendelt Steenbergen, Ton G. van Leeuwen, and Srirang Manohar "Poly(vinyl alcohol) gels as photoacoustic breast phantoms revisited," Journal of Biomedical Optics 16(7), 075002 (1 July 2011). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3597616

Published: 1 July 2011

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

JOURNAL ARTICLE
11 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY