Ultrasonic backscatter coefficients for weakly scattering, agar spheres in agar phantoms.
Applicability of ultrasound phantoms to biological tissue has been limited because most phantoms have generally used strong scatterers. The objective was to develop very weakly scattering phantoms, whose acoustic scattering properties are likely closer to those of tissues and then compare theoretical simulations and experimental backscatter coefficient (BSC) results. The phantoms consisted of agar spheres of various diameters (nominally between 90 and 212 microm), containing ultrafiltered milk, suspended in an agar background. BSC estimates were performed at two institutions over the frequency range 1-13 MHz, and compared to three models. Excellent agreement was shown between the two laboratory results as well as with the three models.
King
Michael R
MR
Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 405 North Mathews, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Anderson
Janelle J
JJ
Herd
Maria-Teresa
MT
Ma
Darryl
D
Haak
Alexander
A
Wirtzfeld
Lauren A
LA
Madsen
Ernest L
EL
Zagzebski
James A
JA
Oelze
Michael L
ML
Hall
Timothy J
TJ
O'Brien
William D
WD
D000362:Agar; D000818:Animals; D008863:Microspheres; D008892:Milk; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015588:Observer Variation; D010316:Particle Size; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D014462:Ultrafiltration; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation*
D000362:Agar