2.1.

Preparation of mammary gland tissue mimicking The first step was to mixture the distilled water with agar, glycerine, PVC and graphite powder at room temperature. Both powders were used to promote wave scattering and to tune thermophysical properties. The agar is useful to give a gelatine-like consistence to the phantom matrix, as well as increasing the fusion temperature from 38C (gelatine) to 78C (mixture), which minimizes the loss of water during the manufacturing process [8]. Glycerine is added to the agar (3%) to obtain US speed values of 1540 m/s at 24.5 0.1C [2], which is the average value for human soft tissue. An important advantage is that glycerine (fusing point 17.9C and boiling point 290C) is less volatile than isopropilic alcohol that could be also used to tune the US speed. The mixture stayed in vacuum for about the 30 minutes, to extract the air bubbles, thus ensuring that when an image is produced, the wave scattering is caused only by graphite and PVC powders. 2.2. Design and Fabrication of Breast Lesions Breast lesions were made of polyacrylamide or silicon in four different shapes (cylindrical; spiculated; large circle and small circle), with maximum diameter ranging from 5 to 30 mm, as shown in fig.1, and implanted randomly into the glandular tissue-mimicking phantom. 2.2.1. Construction of Silicon Lesions For the preparation of the silicon material (GEO RTV615), two constituents were used: The component A which contains the platinum catalyst and component B (hardener), the cure agent to form the silicon network. The components are mixed in the proportion 9:1 (A:B). (a) (b) (c) (d) 422 I.M. de Carvalho et al. / Physics Procedia 3 (2010) 421426 I. M. de Carvalho et al./ Physics Procedia 00 (2010) 000000 Fig.1 Shape of the polyacrylamide (I) and silicon (II) simulated lesions: (a) cylindrical; (b) spiculated; (c) large circle (disk); (d) small circle (disk). These shapes are commonly found in real lesions. 2.2.2. Construction of Polyacrylamide Lesions The polyacrylamide is a polymer, which has been used in phantoms designing because it has nearly the same behaviour in thermal and acoustic fields of biological tissues. Its development requires a more complex preparation than for physical hydrogels as gelatine and agar. When the chemical reactions are completed, it becomes a more stable and easier-to-handle material. Measurements of the acoustic properties were made by applying the

substitution method in pulse-transmission configuration. The phantom is immersed in a tank with distilled water (at 25C) in between a pair of plane circular transducers of 1-MHz central frequency (fig. 2). An SR-9000 (Matec) pulse generator excites one of the transducers. The US pulse crosses the phantom and is received by the other transducer, and then it is sampled at 2 Gs/s in a digital oscilloscope (2024B TDS, Tektronix) and saved in a microcomputer. The phantom is then removed and a new US pulse is acquired, this time travelling through water only (the transducers are kept at the same original distance). By comparing the propagation times and spectral amplitude of the echoes with and without the phantom, it can be estimated the US speed and attenuation of the phantom (details in [9]). The effects of non-linear propagation were not considered because the pressure amplitude and travelling distance are small enough to assume a linear behaviour.

The phantom was prepared as follows: 1) To make gels simulating cancer lesions, 12% gelatine and 4% agar were mixed with the correct amount of deionized water, and heated in the microwave oven until the liquid nearly boils. The mixturewas stirred moderately and cooled to 45 , and FDG was added as needed. Moulds were used to make tumour volumes of desired size and shape, and were solidified in a fridge. 2) To make gels mimicking fat tissue, 1% gelatine and 0.5% agar were mixed with the correct amount of deioniszed water, and the beaker with the mixture in a microwave oven was heated until the temperature reaches 70 till all the gelatine and agar dissolved. The mixture was cooled down to 40 and FDG was added as needed. 3) The tumour volumes were removed from the molds and inserted into the phantom while the gel simulating fat tissue was still at 40 . 4) The whole phantom was left to cool to room temperature where it solidified. DANG et al.: DEVELOPMENT OF AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC BREAST PHANTOM TMM for high frequency breast ultrasound phantoms d L. M. CANNON et al.

Following is the step-by-step procedure for producing a 1400 mL quantity of 50% oil material, followed by the necessary modications to the procedure to produce other oil percentages. 1. In a 1 L beaker, prepare a room temperature solution of 42 g of propylene glycol and 675.5 mL of 18 megohm-cm doubly de-ionized water. 2. Slowly add, while stirring, 107.8 g (dry weight) 200 bloom calf-skin gelatin (Vyse Gelatin Co., Schiller Park, IL,USA) so that no clumping occurs and a uniform slurry results. 3. Cover the beaker with a plastic food wrap such as polyethylene or polyvinylidine chloride, held in place with a rubber band. Punch a small hole or slit in the plastic wrap so that the gas pressure above the slurry during heating remains at atmospheric pressure. 4. Place the beaker in a larger container of hot water so that the level of the hot water is at or above the top of the gelatin slurry in the beaker. The larger container should be metal or Pyrex (Corning Incorporated, Corning, NY, USA), so that it can be placed on a heat source, such as an electric hot plate. 5. Heat the water until the gelatin temperature rises to about 90C and becomes transparent. Remove any bubbles at the meniscus. The transparent hot gelatin is referred to below as molten gelatin. 6. Remove the beaker of molten gelatin from the hot water bath and immerse it partially in a cold water bath. Cool the molten gelatin, while stirring, to 50C and remove it from the cold water bath 7. While cooling the molten gelatin in step 6, heat 700 mL of safower oil to 50C in a 2 L beaker. 8. Add 700 mL of the 50C molten gelatin to the 50C safower oil (Hollywood brand, The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., Melville, NY, USA) and mix vigorously with a tablespoon that is bent at right angles near the bowl of the spoon. During mixing, keep the bowl of the spoon beneath the surface and moving about a horizontal axis, thus minimizing disturbance to the surface of the mixture. (See Fig. 1 in Madsen et al. [2003].) 9. Add 7.7 mL of Ultra Ivory liquid surfactant (liquid Ultra Ivory , Procter and Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH, USA) or the equivalent (Contains anionic and nonionic surfactants and no phosphate; specic ingredients are proprietary [Procter and Gamble]) and continue the stirring motion until the emulsion is nearly white and a separation of oil does not occur

when stirring is stopped. 10. Cool in the cold water bath to 40C and slowly add with stirring 5.292 g of formalin. (Note that formalin is a 37% formaldehyde solution.) It is very important that the mass of added formaldehyde is accurate because the amount affects the stiffness of the resulting material. This accuracy can be accomplished by drawing formalin into a 10 mL syringe with a needle on the end, emptying the syringe except for residual that cannot be removed with the syringe piston, weighing the syringe plus needle plus residual formalin, drawing in 5.292 g of formalin (determined by re-weighing) and emptying the formalin into the emulsion. 11. Continue cooling the emulsion to about 34C and pour into molds and other containers for further cooling and congealing. The congealing temperature is approximately 26C. 12. Allow at least 8 h for cross-linking of the gelatin by formaldehyde to occur before removing the phantom component from its mold. Anthropomorphic breast phantoms E. MADSEN et al.