Building up lesion-like phantoms for mimicking breast ultrasound images

Breast ultrasound is an important complement to mammography that allows differentiating between benign and malignant lesions. The early diagnosis and specialized care for women with breast cancer are indispensable for a better therapeutic result and prognosis of cases. Thereby, it is necessary training professionals to emit trustworthy diagnoses. Here, we set up lesions-like structures in a plasticized polyvinyl chloride phantom. We classified lesions according to their internal echoes and later items. Correlations between the composition of the phantoms and their respective effects at B-mode images become evident. Encapsulated lesions with low internal attenuation materials, were similar to benign lesions having regular and well-defined contours, oval or circular shape, well defined posterior wall and the presence of the acoustic reinforcement, while unencapsulated lesions with high attenuation materials were similar to malignant lesions having an irregular contour and edge shadow.