A new tissue-mimicking material for phantoms

We present a tissue-mimicking material for the phantom of medical diagnostic instruments. Accurate testing of an instrument by phantoms requires a tissue-mimicking material that has the acoustic velocity, density, and attenuation defined in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard, and furthermore the tissue-mimicking material must be stable over time. To achieve the material with the desired acoustic velocity, density, and attenuation, we have developed a new permanent gel with any arbitrary acoustic velocity and little attenuation. The gel originates a swollen segmented polyurethane gel with tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether and 1-Butyl-3-methylimdazolium thiocyanate as medium. The developed tissue-mimicking material was prepared from the permanent swollen segmented polyurethane gel with dispersed poly(methyl methacrylate) particles.