Exploring the nonlinear elastic behavior of phantoms materials for elastography

Most tissues present nonlinear stress/strain relationship for strains larger than 5%. Recently, strain images for compressions beyond this amount have been reported. To achieve a better comprehension of the tissues nonlinear parameters being analyzed from these images, the nonlinear stress/strain properties of phantom materials must be better understood. The hyperelastic nonlinear behavior of such materials was analyzed. The stress/strain curves for four sets of samples (plain gelatin; plain agar; agar/gelatin mixtures; oil in agar/gelatin mixtures) were fit to the Verona-Westmann nonlinear model. The elasticity of plain agar was more nonlinear than that of gelatin. The agar/gelatin mixtures showed a nonlinear behavior between that of gelatin and agar. It was observed that adding oil to the agar/gelatin mixtures decreased the stiffness of the gels in addition to decreasing their nonlinear behavior.

[1]  Sevan Goenezen,et al.  Inverse Problems , 2008 .

[2]  Jingfeng Jiang,et al.  Linear and nonlinear elasticity imaging of soft tissue in vivo: demonstration of feasibility , 2009, Physics in medicine and biology.

[3]  Tomy Varghese,et al.  Stability of heterogeneous elastography phantoms made from oil dispersions in aqueous gels. , 2006, Ultrasound in medicine & biology.

[4]  T. Varghese,et al.  Tissue-mimicking agar/gelatin materials for use in heterogeneous elastography phantoms , 2005, Physics in medicine and biology.

[5]  Guruprasad Madhavan,et al.  An Introduction to Biomechanics-Solids and Fluids, Analysis, and Design , 2005, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[6]  A.R. Skovoroda,et al.  Measuring the nonlinear elastic properties of tissue-like phantoms , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[7]  A.R. Skovoroda,et al.  Nonlinear elasticity imaging: Theory and phantom study , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[8]  Jay D. Humphrey,et al.  An Introduction to Biomechanics: Solids and Fluids, Analysis and Design , 2004 .

[9]  T. Varghese,et al.  Tissue-Mimicking Oil-in-Gelatin Dispersions for Use in Heterogeneous Elastography Phantoms , 2003, Ultrasonic imaging.

[10]  Tsuyoshi Shiina,et al.  Estimation of Nonlinear Elasticity Parameter of Tissues by Ultrasound , 2002 .

[11]  T. Krouskop,et al.  Elastic Moduli of Breast and Prostate Tissues under Compression , 1998, Ultrasonic imaging.

[12]  T. Krouskop,et al.  Phantom materials for elastography , 1997, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[13]  K. Osasa,et al.  Studies on Mechanical Compression Properties of Gels , 1992 .

[14]  D. R. Veronda,et al.  Mechanical characterization of skin-finite deformations. , 1970, Journal of biomechanics.