Sustainable Shear Wave Elastography Medical Phantoms: Waste-Based Fibrous Structures for Medical Applications

Tissue-mimicking phantoms that accurately replicate human tissue are crucial for validating and optimizing elastography systems and developing new treatment methods. The use of waste-based fibrous structures has the dual benefits of waste reduction and economic viability, mitigating the environmental consequences associated with the textile industry and, thus, posing a particularly interesting avenue of research in today’s ever-more environmentally conscious society. This work explores the development of elastography phantoms through the use of textile waste for sustainable valorization. Two cotton-short fiber-based and two polyester-nonwoven-based phantoms were produced by impregnating these textile structures with animal-origin gelatin. These materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), revealing that the diameter of the waste-based fibers (15.28 ± 6.18–22.40 ± 5.78 μm) falls within the typical size range of scatterers used in acoustic phantoms. It was observed that these fibers provided phantoms with intrinsic acoustic scattering properties, resulting in ultrasound images similar to those obtained in biological tissues. Shear wave elastography (SWE) was used to assess the stiffness of the phantoms, which produced realistic ultrasound images with shear wave speed (SWS) values ranging from 1.87 m s−1 to 8.39 m s−1, closely resembling those in different anatomical structures. This research presents an innovative methodology for producing low-cost and sustainable tissue-mimicking materials, underscoring the potential of textile industry waste for phantom production.