A self-supporting gel phantom used for visualization and/or measurement of the three-dimensional distribution of SAR

A phantom model of a human body made of polyacrylamide containing a nonionic surface-active agent, salt, sucrose, and alcohol has been developed to evaluate the local SAR distribution inside the biological body. The phantom is completely transparent before electromagnetic power is absorbed. It becomes white and opaque however by absorbing electromagnetic power so that it can be used to visualize the three-dimensional distribution of the absorbed electromagnetic power. By making use of this clouding phenomenon caused by the temperature increase, we can visualize or measure the electromagnetic power in three-dimensional ways in terms of SAR. The soft phantom models have been developed so far. The purpose of the present study is to develop the stiff phantom that is used without being supported by a container. The phantom composition is given at several frequencies in this paper. Polyacrylamide gel is used in this study because of its good optical transparency before clouding.