Reticulated foam flow phantom ultrasound contrast agent studies

This study is an in vitro investigation to measure dynamic flow properties in an ultrasound flow phantom. A greater understanding of which parameters affect the refill curve's shape, and how those shape differences can be measured in these noisy curves may be valuable in designing more sophisticated in vivo contrast enhancement studies. The developed flow phantom has parameters that can be adjusted. These parameters include: flow characteristics such as flow velocity, contrast agent concentration, and simulated tissue characteristics such as porosity, and density. The phantom was used to conduct a dynamic contrast study. Refill curves over a range of phantom and flow characteristics were studied. Exponential fits of these curves were used to estimate the mean transit time.