Development of Ultrasound Phantom for Volume Calibration

Kim, Hye Young; Lee, Ji Hae; Lee, Kyung Ja; Suh, Hyunsuk; Lee, Rena

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design and construct an ultrasound phantom for volume calibration and evaluate the volume measurement accuracy of a 2 dimensional ultrasonic system. Ultrasound phantom was designed, constructed and tested. The phantom consisted of a background material and a target. The background was made by mixing agarose gel with water. A target, made with an elastic material, was filled with water to vary its volume and shape and inserted into background material. To evaluate accuracy of a 2 dimensional ultrasonic system (128XP, ACUSON), three different shapes of targets (a sphere, 2 ellipsoids and a triangular prism) were constructed. In case of ellipsoid shape, two targets, one with same size length and width (ellipsoid 1) and another with the length 2 times longer than width (ellipsoid 2) were examined. The target volumes of each shape were varied from 94cc to 450cc and measurement accuracy was examined. The volume difference between the real and measured target of the sphere shape ranged between 6.7 and 11%. For the ellipsoid targets, the differences ranged from 9.2 to 10.5% with ellipsoid 1 and 25.7% with ellipsoid 2. The volume difference of the triangular prism target ranged between 20.8 and 35%. An easy and simple method of constructing an ultrasound phantom was introduced and it was possible to check the volume measurement accuracy of an ultrasound system.