Styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene (SEBS) copolymer-in-mineral oil gel is an appropriate tissue-mimicking material to manufacture stable phantoms for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging. Glycerol dispersion has been proposed to further tune the acoustic properties and to incorporate hydrophilic additives into SEBS gel. However, this type of material has not been investigated to produce wall-less vascular flow phantom for these imaging modalities. In this paper, the development of a wall-less vascular phantom for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging is reported. Mixtures of glycerol/TiO₂-in-SEBS gel samples were manufactured at different proportions of glycerol (10%, 15%, and 20%) and TiO₂ (0% to 0.5%) to characterize their optical and acoustic properties. Optical absorption in the 500–950 nm range was independent of the amount of glycerol and TiO₂, while optical scattering increased linearly with the concentration of TiO₂. Acoustic attenuation and speed of sound were not influenced by the presence of TiO₂. The sample manufactured using weight percentages of 10% SEBS, 15% glycerol, and 0.2% TiO₂ was selected to make the vascular phantom. The phantom proved to be stable during the pulsatile blood-mimicking fluid (BMF) flow, without any observed damage to its structure or leaks. Ultrasound color Doppler images showed a typical laminar flow, while the B-mode images showed a homogeneous speckled pattern due to the presence of the glycerol droplets in the gel. The photoacoustic images of the phantom showed a well-defined signal coming from the surface of the phantom and from the vessels where BMF was flowing. The Spearman’s correlations between the photoacoustic and tabulated spectra calculated from the regions containing BMF, in this case a mixture of salt solutions (NiCl₂ and CuSO₄), were higher than 0.95. Our results demonstrated that glycerol-in-SEBS gel was an adequate material to make a stable vascular flow phantom for ultrasound photoacoustic imaging.

苯乙烯-乙烯/丁烯-苯乙烯 (SEBS) 共聚物矿物油凝胶是一种合适的组织模拟材料，可用于制造用于超声和光声成像的稳定体模。已经提出甘油分散体来进一步调整声学特性并将亲水性添加剂加入到 SEBS 凝胶中。然而，尚未研究这种类型的材料来生产用于这些成像方式的无壁血管流动体模。在本文中，报告了用于超声和光声成像的无壁血管体模的开发。以不同比例的甘油（10%、15% 和 20%）和 TiO _{2制备甘油/TiO 2} -in-SEBS 凝胶样品的混合物(0% 到 0.5%) 来表征它们的光学和声学特性。_{500-950 nm 范围内的光吸收与甘油和 TiO 2}的量无关，而光散射随 TiO ₂浓度线性增加。声衰减和声速不受TiO ₂存在的影响。使用重量百分比为 10% SEBS、15% 甘油和 0.2% TiO _{2制造的样品}被选中制作血管模型。事实证明，该体模在脉动的血液模拟流体 (BMF) 流动期间是稳定的，没有观察到其结构或泄漏的任何损坏。超声彩色多普勒图像显示典型的层流，而 B 模式图像由于凝胶中存在甘油液滴而显示均匀的斑点图案。模型的光声图像显示了来自模型表面和 BMF 流动的血管的明确信号。从包含 BMF 的区域计算的光声和列表光谱之间的 Spearman 相关性，在这种情况下是盐溶液的混合物（NiCl ₂和 CuSO ₄)，均高于 0.95。我们的研究结果表明，甘油-SEBS 凝胶是制造用于超声光声成像的稳定血管流动体模的合适材料。