Abstract
Biomedical optical devices are widely used for clinical detection of various tissue anomalies. However, optical measurements have limited accuracy and traceability, partially owing to the lack of effective calibration methods that simulate the actual tissue conditions. To facilitate standardized calibration and performance evaluation of medical optical devices, we develop a three-dimensional fuse deposition modeling (FDM) technique for freeform fabrication of tissue-simulating phantoms. The FDM system uses transparent gel wax as the base material, titanium dioxide (TiO2 ) powder as the scattering ingredient, and graphite powder as the absorption ingredient. The ingredients are preheated, mixed, and deposited at the designated ratios layer-by-layer to simulate tissue structural and optical heterogeneities. By printing the sections of human brain model based on magnetic resonance images, we demonstrate the capability for simulating tissue structural heterogeneities. By measuring optical properties of multilayered phantoms and comparing with numerical simulation, we demonstrate the feasibility for simulating tissue optical properties. By creating a rat head phantom with embedded vasculature, we demonstrate the potential for mimicking physiologic processes of a living system.
Highlights
Biological optical imaging technique has the capability of detecting biological structure, function, and molecular characteristics in real-time based on the photon interactions with biological tissue
The technical feasibility of the proposed fuse deposition modeling (FDM) process for producing tissue-simulating optical phantoms is demonstrated through a series of benchtop experiments
By printing the sections of human brain model based on magnetic resonance (MR) images, we demonstrate the system capability for simulating tissue structural heterogeneities
Summary
Biological optical imaging technique has the capability of detecting biological structure, function, and molecular characteristics in real-time based on the photon interactions with biological tissue. It has been shown that optical phantoms are able to simulate important optical parameters of biological tissues, such as refractive index, absorption coefficient, scattering coefficient, and anisotropy.[3] A typical optical phantom is composed of the base, the scattering, and the absorption materials. Fluorophores and other contrast enhancement agents are added in the phantoms.[4] Optical phantoms have been developed and widely used in various clinical applications, such as medical device calibration, validation, and clinical education. One example is to use brain-simulating phantoms to simulate brain structural and physiological properties to calibrate spectrophotometric devices for brain functional studies.[5,6] Existing optical phantoms are based on homogenous materials without considering the multilayered heterogeneous structures observed in biological tissue.
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