Development of a neonatal skull phantom for photoacoustic imaging

Pantea Tavakolian; Rhiannon Todd; Ivan Kosik; Astrid Chamson-Reig; Fartash Vasefi; Keith St. Lawrence; Jeffrey J. L. Carson

doi:10.1117/12.2005372

4 March 2013 Development of a neonatal skull phantom for photoacoustic imaging

Pantea Tavakolian, Rhiannon Todd, Ivan Kosik, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Fartash Vasefi, Keith St. Lawrence, Jeffrey J. L. Carson

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8581, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2013; 858146 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005372
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2013, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) has been proposed as a non-invasive technique for the diagnosis and monitoring of disorders in the neonatal brain. However, PAI of the brain through the intact skull is challenging due to reflection and attenuation of photoacoustic pressure waves by the skull bone. The objective of this work was to develop a phantom for testing the potential limits the skull bone places on PAI of the neonatal brain. Our approach was to make acoustic measurements on materials designed to mimic the neonatal skull bone and construct a semi-realistic phantom. A water tank and two ultrasound transducers were utilized to measure the ultrasound insertion loss (100 kHz to 5MHz) of several materials. Cured mixtures of epoxy and titanium dioxide powder provided the closest acoustic match to neonatal skull bone. Specifically, a 1.4-mm thick sample composed of 50% (by mass) titanium dioxide powder and 50% epoxy was closest to neonatal skull bone in terms of acoustic insertion loss. A hemispherical skull phantom (1.4 mm skull thickness) was made by curing the epoxy/titanium dioxide powder mixture inside a mold. The mold was constructed using 3D prototyping techniques and was based on the hairless head of a realistic infant doll. The head was scanned to generate a 3D model, which in turn was used to build a 3D CAD version of the mold. The mold was CNC machined from two solid blocks of Teflon®. The neonatal skull phantom will enable the study of the propagation of photoacoustic pressure waves under a variety of experimental conditions.

Citation Download Citation

Pantea Tavakolian, Rhiannon Todd, Ivan Kosik, Astrid Chamson-Reig, Fartash Vasefi, Keith St. Lawrence, and Jeffrey J. L. Carson "Development of a neonatal skull phantom for photoacoustic imaging", Proc. SPIE 8581, Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2013, 858146 (4 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2005372

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