Stability of gel wax based optical scattering phantoms.

Charlotte J Maughan Jones,Peter R T Munro

doi:10.1364/boe.9.003495

Abstract

Phantoms with tuneable optical scattering properties are essential in the development and refinement of optical based imaging techniques. Mineral oil based ‘gel wax’ phantoms are the subject of increasing interest due to their ease and speed of manufacture, non-toxic nature, ability to cast into anatomically realistic shapes, as well as their cost-effective nature of production. The addition of scatterers such as titanium dioxide powder and monodisperse silica microspheres to the gel wax allows for the creation of phantoms with a controllable optical scattering coefficient. To enable repeated use of such phantoms, the stability of the scattering properties must be determined–a property which has yet to be investigated. We present an analysis of the stability of the reduced scattering coefficient () of such phantoms over time. We conclude that due to the measurable reduction in scattering coefficient over time, gel wax phantoms embedded with silica spheres may not be suitable for repeated use over time, however gel wax-TiO2 phantoms are much more temporally stable.

Highlights

Phantoms are essential for the development and refinement of biomedical imaging techniques, including many optical techniques
We present an analysis of the stability of the reduced scattering coefficient of such phantoms over time
When the viscosity of the mixture if reduced (as with gel wax), the spheres can slowly move towards each other, and this aggregation increases over time

Summary

Introduction

Phantoms are essential for the development and refinement of biomedical imaging techniques, including many optical techniques. Silicone and TiO2 powder phantoms are widely used in biomedical optics applications, both with and without additional absorbers Such phantoms are considered stable and reproducible, and have previously been used in, for example, optical coherence tomography [3] and elastography [4], as well as to create complex multi-layered tissue mimicking phantoms [5] and in the creation of general optical phantoms for use in the near infrared [6]. Agarose is yet another matrix material which, requires specialist additives and storage methods to increase its shelf life [8]

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