Title
Elastically Anisotropic Phantoms Constructed from 3D-printed PLA Fibers
Date Issued
07 September 2020
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
conference paper
Author(s)
Herman K.
Yokoyama K.
Gallippi C.M.
University of North Carolina
Publisher(s)
IEEE Computer Society
Abstract
Many tissues, such as muscle, kidney, and breast, are mechanically anisotropic. Appropriately exploited, mechanical anisotropy can be a clinically relevant target for noninvasive imaging. An imaging method's potential for interrogating mechanical anisotropy can be experimentally evaluated using tissue-mimicking materials, also known as phantoms. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing mechanically anisotropic phantoms using 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) fibers embedded in gelatin hydrogel or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) cryogel. Four identical fiber sets were printed; two were embedded in gelatin and two in PVA. Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) imaging was performed on the constructed phantoms, with data acquisitions at 0°, 30°, 60°, and 90° concentric orientations, where 0° and 90° corresponded to the long-axis of the spatially asymmetric ARF excitation being aligned across and along the fibers, respectively. Degree of anisotropy (DoA) was calculated as the ratio of peak displacements achieved at 90° versus 0° orientations. While both gelatin and PVA embedded fibers demonstrated elastic anisotropy, DoA values were 32% higher in gelatin. These pilot experimental results demonstrate that phantoms constructed of 3D-printed PLA fibers embedded in gelatin or PVA exhibit mechanical anisotropy as assessed by ARFI ultrasound.
Volume
2020-September
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería médica Radiología, Medicina nuclear, Imágenes médicas
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85097886096
ISSN of the container
19485719
ISBN of the container
978-172815448-0
Conference
IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, IUS
Sponsor(s)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank Siemens Healthcare, Ultrasound Division for in-kind support. This study was supported in part by NIH grants R01HL092944, R01NS074057, R01DK107740, K02HL105659, and T32HL069768.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus