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Portrait of Sophia Zackrisson. Photo

Sophia Zackrisson

Research group manager, Principal investigator, Professor, MD

Portrait of Sophia Zackrisson. Photo

Optical tuning of copolymer-in-oil tissue-mimicking materials for multispectral photoacoustic imaging

Author

  • Azin Khodaverdi
  • Magnus Cinthio
  • Esbjörn Reistad
  • Tobias Erlöv
  • Malin Malmsjö
  • Sophia Zackrisson
  • Nina Reistad

Summary, in English

OBJECTIVE: The availability of tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) for manufacturing high-quality phantoms is crucial for standardization, evaluating novel quantitative approaches, and clinically translating new imaging modalities, such as photoacoustic imaging (PAI). Recently, a gel comprising the copolymer styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene (SEBS) in mineral oil has shown significant potential as TMM due to its optical and acoustic properties akin to soft tissue. We propose using artists' oil-based inks dissolved and diluted in balsam turpentine to tune the optical properties.

APPROACH: A TMM was fabricated by mixing a SEBS copolymer and mineral oil, supplemented with additives to tune its optical absorption and scattering properties independently. A systematic investigation of the tuning accuracies and relationships between concentrations of oil-based pigments and optical absorption properties of the TMM across visible and near-infrared wavelengths using collimated transmission spectroscopy was conducted. The photoacoustic spectrum of various oil-based inks was studied to analyze the effect of increasing concentration and depth.

MAIN RESULTS: Artists' Oil-based inks dissolved in turpentine proved effective as additives to tune the optical absorption properties of mineral oil SEBS-gel with high accuracy. The TMMs demonstrated long-term stability and suitability for producing phantoms with desired optical absorption properties for PAI studies.

SIGNIFICANCE: The findings, including tuning of optical absorption and spectral shape, suggest that this TMM facilitates the development of more sophisticated phantoms of arbitrary shapes. This approach holds promise for advancing the development of PAI, including investigation of the spectral coloring effect. In addition, it can potentially aid in the development and clinical translation of ultrasound optical tomography.

Department/s

  • LU Profile Area: Light and Materials
  • LTH Profile Area: Engineering Health
  • Department of Biomedical Engineering
  • LTH Profile Area: Photon Science and Technology
  • Ophthalmology, Lund
  • LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö
  • Department of Translational Medicine
  • Diagnostic Radiology, (Lund)
  • Atomic Physics

Publishing year

2024-07-03

Language

English

Publication/Series

Biomedical Physics Engineering Express

Volume

10

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

IOP Publishing

Topic

  • Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Status

Published

Research group

  • Radiology Diagnostics, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2057-1976