Tissue-Mimicking Phantoms with Tunable Acoustic and Mechanical Properties for Visualizing MRgFUS Cavitation Lesions

Motivation: Develop tissue-mimicking phantoms for MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) procedures, enabling precise cavitation lesion visualization. Goal(s): Phantoms with tunable acoustic and mechanical properties, capable of producing MR image contrast when exposed to cavitation lesioning. Previous designs lacked tunable parameters or MR contrast, hindering comprehensive study of cavitation behavior. This project seeks to fill this gap by developing versatile phantoms with MR contrast. Approach: Combine evaporated milk, saline, agarose, and live red blood cells to create versatile phantoms. Conduct systematic experiments to validate tunable acoustic attenuation, mechanical stiffness, and lesion contrast for MRgFUS. Results: Successfully produced customizable phantoms with excellent lesion contrast in MRgFUS. Impact: Researchers can use the results presented here to construct MR visible phantoms that interrogate acoustic cavitation.