Objective
The need for ultrasound flow phantoms to validate ultrasound systems requires the
development of materials that can clearly visualize the flow inside for measurement
purposes.
Methods
A transparent ultrasound flow phantom material composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogel
(PVA-H) with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and water solution manufactured using the freezing
method and mixed with quartz glass powder to exhibit scattering effects is proposed.
To achieve transparency of the hydrogel phantom, the refractive index (RI) was changed
to match that of the glass by modifying the PVA concentration and the ratio of DMSO
to water in the solvent. The feasibility of optical particle image velocimetry (PIV)
was verified by comparing an acrylic rectangular cross-section channel with a rigid
wall. After the feasibility tests, an ultrasound flow phantom was fabricated to conduct
ultrasound B-mode visualization and Doppler–PIV comparison.
Discussion
The results revealed that the PIV measured through PVA-H material exhibited 0.8% error
in the measured maximum velocity compared with PIV through the acrylic material. B-mode
images are similar to real tissue visualization with a limitation of a higher sound
velocity, when compared with human tissue, of 1792 m/s. Doppler measurement of the
phantom revealed approximately 120% and 19% overestimation of maximum and mean velocities,
respectively, compared with those from PIV.
Conclusion
The proposed material possesses the advantage of the single-phantom ability to improve
the ultrasound flow phantom for validation of flow.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 04, 2023
Accepted:
December 31,
2022
Received in revised form:
December 19,
2022
Received:
May 26,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofIdentification
Copyright
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