Program Information
A New Phantom Design for Routine Doppler Ultrasound Testing
J Grice*, D Pickens , R Price , Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, TN
Presentations
SU-D-210-2 (Sunday, July 12, 2015) 2:05 PM - 3:00 PM Room: 210
Purpose:The objective of this project is to develop a simple, inexpensive, and highly portable Doppler ultrasound quality assurance phantom for routine testing. A prototype phantom has been designed and fabricated. It is powered by gravity alone, requires no external equipment for operation, and produces a stable fluid velocity useful for quality assurance. In contrast, currently available Doppler testing systems are large, expensive, and require external power. The new phantom aims to remedy these problems while still offering satisfactory capability of routine quality testing.
Methods:The current system measures 15.9cmx10.8cmx12.7cm, is sealed, and contains about 55 ml of Doppler test fluid. Two reservoirs for the Doppler fluid to flow between were designed and then printed on a 3D printer. The printed components were connected with latex tubing and then seated in a tissue-mimicking gel. Data to confirm reproducibility was acquired on an Acuson Sequoia 512 ultrasound system (Siemens Medical Solutions).
Results:The current system maintains stable flow from one reservoir to the other for approximately 7 seconds. Color Doppler imaging has shown to be qualitatively consistent with laminar flow. Using Pulsed Doppler, average velocities from the current system have been measured at 0.178 m/s with a standard deviation of 0.021 m/s across 102 measurements.
Conclusion:Due largely to unavailability of an appropriate phantom, Doppler ultrasound often lacks frequent quality testing. This system attempts to address several obstacles facing Doppler testing, which may make weekly, and even daily Doppler testing feasible in clinical settings. The future goals of this project will be to further refine the system and measurement techniques to achieve more stable measurements and longer periods of flow. There are still several degrees of freedom in the system (transducer location, fluid temperature, tube radius, etc.) that have yet to be optimized and should increase the reproducibility of the system.
Contact Email: