Tissue-mimicking phantom materials with tunable optical properties suitable for assessment of diffuse reflectance spectroscopy during electrosurgery

• Main Authors: Amiri, S.A (Author), Dankelman, J. (Author), Hendriks, B.H.W (Author), Lai, M. (Author), van Berckel, P. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA) 2022
• Subjects: 3D printers; adipose tissue; Article; Assessment technique; breast tissue; breast-conserving surgery; cancer tissue; Conductive materials; diffuse reflectance spectroscopy; Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy; electrosurgery; fat; gelatin; human; in vitro study; Intra-operative; muscle; neoplasm; Optical properties; Performance; Phantom materials; Phantoms; polyvinyl alcohol; protein glutamine gamma glutamyltransferase; Reflection; Spectral response; Spectroscopy; Tissue mimicking phantom; Tissue-mimicking materials; tissues; Tumors; Tunable optical properties; water; X ray
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Emerging intraoperative tumor margin assessment techniques require the development of more complex and reliable organ phantoms to assess the performance of the technique before its translation into the clinic. In this work, electrically conductive tissue-mimicking materials (TMMs) based on fat, water and agar/gelatin were produced with tunable optical properties. The composition of the phantoms allowed for the assessment of tumor margins using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, as the fat/water ratio served as a discriminating factor between the healthy and malignant tissue. Moreover, the possibility of using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or transglutaminase in combination with fat, water and gelatin for developing TMMs was studied. The diffuse spectral response of the developed phantom materials had a good match with the spectral response of porcine muscle and adipose tissue, as well as in vitro human breast tissue. Using the developed recipe, anatomically relevant heterogeneous breast phantoms representing the optical properties of different layers of the human breast were fabricated using 3D-printed molds. These TMMs can be used for further development of phantoms applicable for simulating the realistic breast conserving surgery workflow in order to evaluate the intraoperative optical-based tumor margin assessment techniques during electrosurgery. © 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement