Performance tests of Doppler ultrasound equipment with a tissue and blood-mimicking phantom.

Abstract

A tissue‐ and blood‐mimicking phantom was assembled for assessing the performance of ultrasound Doppler equipment. The phantom is in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped with a 10 x 20 cm scanning window and a depth of 16 cm. Components of the phantom include a tissue‐mimicking material, 7.9 mm diameter simulated vessels, a fluid with similar back‐scatter as whole blood, and a peristaltic pumping system producing peak scatterer velocities greater than 1 m/sec. Performance tests done with the phantom are outlined. These include assessments of the maximum depth of penetration and of the directional discrimination capabilities of the instrument, determinations of the accuracy of displayed flow velocities, and accuracy assessments of the displayed position of the Doppler sample volume.

Device for the calibration of flow-velocity-measuring Doppler ultrasound equipment.

“…When the harmonic occurs at veloci· ties greater than the range limit, they will alias. Similar [8]). Scale accuracy should be verified for all scales used.…”

A review of Doppler ultrasound quality assurance protocols and test devices

“…Furthermore, this study involved the objective analysis of the Doppler ultrasound spectra and colour Doppler images which allowed for subtle changes in performance due to the dead elements to be detected. Functional tests such as directional discrimination and Doppler sample volume registration have been successfully investigated using a flow phantom since the 1980s [27]. Penetration depth has been investigated very successfully using a flow phantom, given that this device provides an appropriately attenuating medium similar to the in-vivo situation [27].…”

“…Functional tests such as directional discrimination and Doppler sample volume registration have been successfully investigated using a flow phantom since the 1980s [27]. Penetration depth has been investigated very successfully using a flow phantom, given that this device provides an appropriately attenuating medium similar to the in-vivo situation [27]. Browne et al investigated the use of a custom-built flow phantom to determine the velocity detection limitations of Doppler ultrasound which contained vessels of varying diameters at varying depths (see Fig.…”

“…More recently, the use of vessel mimicking materials has become more prominent [24e26]. Several types of BMF have been developed [27,28], with the one most closely matching real blood developed as part of an European Commission project [11,12]. The Medical Physics Department in St George's Hospital, London, U.K. developed a flow phantom largely based on the International Electrotechnical Comission (IEC) 61685 recommendations [29] which also included extra targets for the assessment of parameters such as Doppler temporal resolution; however, there are limited papers outlining this work despite the routine use of the system for Doppler ultrasound quality control [30].…”

Experimental Validation of Color Doppler Velocity Measurement for Ultrasonic-Measurement-Integrated Simulation of Blood Flow

“…Generally, the velocities toward the ultrasound probe and those away from the probe are displayed in warm and cold colors, respectively. A number of investigations have been performed on the validation of ultrasonic measurement using the fluid flow phantom [21] , the spring-type phantom [22] , and the belt-type phantom [23] .…”