A Tissue Phantom for Evaluation of Mechanical Damage Caused by Cavitation

We have developed a phantom which acts as an indicator of mechanical tissue damage caused by cavitation in therapeutic ultrasound such as histotripsy. The phantom is an optically-transparent gel, allowing real-time visualization of cavitation. Lesions arc visible as a change in transparency, giving immediate feedback of the damage. The phantom was formed in 3 layers of agarose gel, with the center layer containing 5% porcine red blood cells. It was found that the acoustic and mechanical properties are similar to tissue. To compare lesions induced in the phantom and tissue, phantoms and ex-vivo kidney were treated using a focused 1-MHz transducer applying 15 cycle pulses at a rate of 100 Hz and peak negative pressure of 14 MPa. Cavitation caused lysis of red blood cells, which changed the affected area from translucent red to transparent. Lesion morphology of the phantom was similar to tissue, with no cellular structures remaining inside the lesion and sharp boundaries between the transparent and translucent zones. Lesions in the phantom produced a hypoechoic appearance in the phantom on a B-Mode ultrasound image, as previously observed with histotripsy lesions generated in tissue. High-speed imaging was used to correlate cavitation activity with the formation of lesions spatially. During ultrasound exposure, cavitation clouds were observed in the phantom by high-speed optical imaging. Lesions in the gel only formed when and where cavitation was observed. The tissue phantom allows immediate visualization of cavitation and cavitational tissue damage providing a useful research tool for cavitational ultrasound therapy studies such as testing acoustic parameters or scanning algorithms.