ACOUSTIC ASSESSMENT OF A KONJAC-CARRAGEENAN TISSUE-MIMICKING MATERIAL AT 5-60 MHZ

The acoustic properties of a robust tissue-mimicking material based on konjac-carrageenan at ultrasound frequencies in the range 5-60 MHz are described. Acoustic properties were characterized using two methods: a broadband reflection substitution technique using a commercially available preclinical ultrasound scanner (Vevo 770, FUJIFILM VisualSonics, Toronto, ON, Canada), and a dedicated high-frequency ultrasound facility developed at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL, Teddington, UK), which employed a broadband through-transmission substitution technique. The mean speed of sound across the measured frequencies was found to be 1551.7 +/- 12.7 and 1547.7 +/- 3.3 m s(-1), respectively. The attenuation exhibited a non-linear dependence on frequency, f (MHz), in the form of a polynomial function: 0.009787f(2) + 0.2671f and 0.01024f(2) + 0.3639f, respectively. The characterization of this tissue-mimicking material will provide reference data for designing phantoms for preclinical systems, which may, in certain applications such as flow phantoms, require a physically more robust tissue-mimicking material than is currently available. (E-mail: david.kenwright@ed.ac.uk) (C) 2014 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.