Breast ultrasound imaging phantom to mimic malign lesion characteristics

Abstract

Ultrasound (US) phantoms are used to simulate the main acoustic properties of human soft tissues and are usually applied in guided biopsy training and equipment calibration. In this work it is presented an ultrasound phantom that mimics breast lesions with irregular edge, which is a typical feature related to malignancy. The phantom matrix was made of a mixture of water, agar, glycerine and graphite and PVC powders and the lesions were of silicon and polyacrylamide. The mimicking properties were US attenuation, propagation speed and density. The images obtained were visually compatible to malignant and benign lesions and are meant to be used as references for evaluation of segmentation algorithms for image processing.