Development of Gel Phantom Having Dielectric Property Equal to Breast Tissue for Medical Metrology and the Effect of SiC Nanopowders on the Dielectric Constant

Abstract

There are major shortcomings of phantoms, which are important for improving the image quality of medical devices produced by developing technology and also for calibration settings. The most important of these shortcomings is the change in the concentration of the structures forming the phantom and the deterioration of the structure due to external factors. It is important to design and develop gel phantoms which are longer time resistant to these negative effects and show electrical properties close to the living tissue. As is the case in many areas, the use of live human subjects in the medical field has not been approved and banned by many ethics committees due to the possibility of being harmful to health, and instead of living human subjects, phantoms with close features are used. In imaging systems, such as MR, Ultrasound, Tomography, X-ray, the working range of these phantoms should be determined. In addition, the use of mobile telephones has been widely used today, the absorption of electromagnetic rays emitted from these devices (SAR) as a result of the loss of the electrical property of phantom to determine the interval of distortion is important for future advances and innovations in the medical field. In the study, 5 g PVA was heated in a beaker containing 45 ml of pure water for 5 minutes at 80oC with stirring and a 10% buffer PVA solution was prepared. Different amounts of Triton X-100 were added to these buffer solutions and mixed for 15 minutes. After waiting for 24 hours, dielectric constants of gel phantoms were examined at room temperature. Agilent 85070E Network Analyzer and Performance Probe with Short Block were used to measure the dielectric constant. Gel phantoms were obtained showing the dielectric properties of human breast tissue according to the measurements taken in the frequency range 0 to 20 GHz. 10 ml 10% PVA + 5 ml Triton X-100 gel phantom from this gel phantom was examined by changing the dielectric constant by mixing 0.1 g SiC nanopowder. Afterwards, images of this gel phantom obtained with WETSEM (Wet Scanning Electron Microscope) were examined.