Atherosclerotic carotid bifurcation phantoms with stenotic soft inclusions for ultrasound flow and vessel wall elastography imaging.

Atherosclerotic carotid bifurcation phantoms with stenotic soft inclusions for ultrasound flow and vessel wall elastography imaging.
Phys Med Biol. 2019 Mar 20;:
Authors: Chayer B, Van Den Hoven M, Roy Cardinal MH, Li H, Swillens A, Lopata RGP, Cloutier G
Abstract
As the complexity of ultrasound signal processing algorithms increases, it becomes more difficult to demonstrate their added value and thus robust validation strategies are required. We propose a method of manufacturing ultrasonic vascular phantoms mimicking an atheromatous plaque in an internal carotid artery bifurcation for applications in flow imaging and elastography. During the fabrication process, a soft inclusion mimicking a stenotic lipid pool was embedded within the vascular wall. Mechanical testing measured Young's moduli of the vascular wall and soft inclusion at 342 ± 25 kPa and 17 ± 3 kPa, respectively. B-mode, color Doppler, power Doppler, shear wave elastography, and strain elastography images of the different phantoms were produced to show the validity of the fabrication process. Because of their realistic geometries and mechanical properties, those phantoms may become advantageous for fluid-structure experimental modeling and validation of new ultrasound-based imaging technologies.
PMID: 30893669 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - March 19, 2019 Category: Physics Authors: Chayer B, Van Den Hoven M, Roy Cardinal MH, Li H, Swillens A, Lopata RGP, Cloutier G Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research