Abstract
.Significance: Tissue simulating phantoms are an important part of validating biomedical optical techniques. Tissue pathology in inflammation and oedema involves changes in both water and hemoglobin fractions.Aim: We present a method to create solid gelatin-based phantoms mimicking inflammation and oedema with adjustable water and hemoglobin fractions.Approach: One store-bought gelatin and one research grade gelatin were evaluated. Different water fractions were obtained by varying the water-to-gelatin ratio. Ferrous stabilized human hemoglobin or whole human blood was added as absorbers, and the stability and characteristics of each were compared. Intralipid® was used as the scatterer. All phantoms were characterized using spatial frequency domain spectroscopy.Results: The estimated water fraction varied linearly with expected values ( for the store-bought gelatin and for the research grade gelatin). Phantoms including ferrous stabilized hemoglobin stayed stable up to one day but had methemoglobin present at day 0. The phantoms with whole blood remained stable up to 3 days using the store-bought gelatin.Conclusions: A range of physiological relevant water fractions was obtained for both gelatin types, with the stability of the phantoms including hemoglobin differing between the gelatin type and hemoglobin preparation. These low-cost phantoms can incorporate other water-based chromophores and be fabricated as thin sheets to form multilayered structures.
Highlights
We describe a robust method for creating solid gelatin-based phantoms with physiological relevant and adjustable water fractions
The absorption spectra of the two types of gelatins mainly differed below 580 nm, where the research grade gelatin had stronger absorption than the store-bought gelatin
This was observed visually, where phantoms including research grade gelatin having a stronger yellow color compared to those including store-bought gelatin
Summary
Translational research involves the in vivo study of abnormal or provoked tissue, not least the skin. Two key components of the inflammatory processes often studied are redness (erythema) and swelling (oedema). By inserting a small microdialysis catheter, substances can diffuse from tissue through the membrane of the microdialysis catheter to be collected and analyzed. Microdialysis is used both in clinical research in many organs including skin (percutaneous penetration, pharmacokinetics, skin metabolism, and skin inflammation) and in clinical monitoring in intensive care settings.[1]. For optimal interpretation of the high-sensitivity microdialysis data obtained, normalization is required for blood tissue concentration and the degree of swelling (water content) in the Journal of Biomedical Optics
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