Open AccessGel wax-based tissue-mimicking phantoms for multispectral photoacoustic imaging
Author(s) -
Efthymios Maneas,
Wenfeng Xia,
Olumide Ogunlade,
Martina Fonseca,
Daniil I. Nikitichev,
Anna L. David,
Simeon J. West,
Sébastien Ourselin,
Jeremy C. Hebden,
Tom Vercauteren,
Adrien E. Desjardins
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.9.001151
Subject(s) - materials science , multispectral image , wax , optics , absorption (acoustics) , photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine , photoacoustic effect , optical coherence tomography , attenuation , biomedical engineering , medicine , physics , composite material , computer science , computer vision
Tissue-mimicking phantoms are widely used for the calibration, evaluation and standardisation of medical imaging systems, and for clinical training. For photoacoustic imaging, tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) that have tuneable optical and acoustic properties, high stability, and mechanical robustness are highly desired. In this study, gel wax is introduced as a TMM that satisfies these criteria for developing photoacoustic imaging phantoms. The reduced scattering and optical absorption coefficients were independently tuned with the addition of TiO 2 and oil-based inks. The frequency-dependent acoustic attenuation obeyed a power law; for native gel wax, it varied from 0.71 dB/cm at 3 MHz to 9.93 dB/cm at 12 MHz. The chosen oil-based inks, which have different optical absorption spectra in the range of 400 to 900 nm, were found to have good photostability under pulsed illumination with photoacoustic excitation light. Optically heterogeneous phantoms that comprised of inclusions with different concentrations of carbon black and coloured inks were fabricated, and multispectral photoacoustic imaging was performed with an optical parametric oscillator and a planar Fabry-Pérot sensor. We conclude that gel wax is well suited as a TMM for multispectral photoacoustic imaging.