Characterization of Various Tissue Mimicking Materials for Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Tissue mimicking materials are physical constructs exhibiting certain desired properties, which are used in machine calibration, medical imaging research, surgical planning, training, and simulation. For medical ultrasound, those specific properties include acoustic propagation speed and attenuation coefficient over the diagnostic frequency range. We investigated the acoustic characteristics of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastisol, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), and isopropanol using a time-of-flight technique, where a pulse was passed through a sample of known thickness contained in a water bath. The propagation speed in PVC is approximately 1400 m s(-1) depending on the exact chemical composition, with the attenuation coefficient ranging from 0.35 dB cm(-1) at 1 MHz to 10.57 dB cm(-1) at 9 MHz. The propagation speed in PDMS is in the range of 1100 m s(-1), with an attenuation coefficient of 1.28 dB cm(-1) at 1 MHz to 21.22 dB cm(-1) at 9 MHz. At room temperature (22 degrees C), a mixture of water-isopropanol (7.25 % isopropanol by volume) exhibits a propagation speed of 1540 m s(-1), making it an excellent and inexpensive tissue-mimicking liquid for medical ultrasound imaging.