title: Organosilicon phantom for photoacoustic imaging.
abstract: Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging technique. Although commercially available photoacoustic imaging systems currently exist, the technology is still in its infancy. Therefore, the design of stable phantoms is essential to achieve semiquantitative evaluation of the performance of a photoacoustic system and can help optimize the properties of contrast agents. We designed and developed a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) phantom with exceptionally fine geometry; the phantom was tested using photoacoustic experiments loaded with the standard indocyanine green dye and compared to an agar phantom pattern through polyethylene glycol-gold nanorods. The linearity of the photoacoustic signal with the nanoparticle number was assessed. The signal-tonoiseratio and contrast were employed as image quality parameters, and enhancements of up to 50 and up to 300%, respectively, were measured with the PDMS phantom with respect to the agar one. A tissue-mimicking (TM)-PDMS was prepared by adding TiO2 and India ink; photoacoustic tests were performed in order to compare the signal generated by the TM-PDMS and the biological tissue. The PDMS phantom can become a particularly promising tool in the field of photoacoustics for the evaluation of the performance of a PA system and as a model of the structure of vascularized soft tissues.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, Italy.
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Avigo
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, ItalybScuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Piazza Martiri della Libertà 33, Pisa 56127, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Di Lascio
authors.affiliation: Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Fisica, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, Pisa 56127, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Armanetti
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kusmic
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara," CNR, Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino (FI) 50019, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cavigli
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara," CNR, Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino (FI) 50019, Italy.
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ratto
authors.affiliation: NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze, CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa 56127, ItalyfCenter of Nanotechnology Innovation @NEST, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa 56127, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meucci
authors.affiliation: NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze, CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa 56127, Italy.
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Masciullo
authors.affiliation: NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze, CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza San Silvestro 12, Pisa 56127, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cecchini
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara," CNR, Via Madonna del Piano 10, Sesto Fiorentino (FI) 50019, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pini
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faita
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, CNR, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, ItalygFondazione CNR/Regione Toscana G. Monasterio, Via Giuseppe Moruzzi 1, Pisa 56124, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Menichetti
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D017646:Organosilicon Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D017646:Organosilicon Compounds