Composition and acoustic properties in a cartilage phantom

In this study, a cartilage phantom that can be used for verifications and calibrations of not only magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus but also ultrasonic diagnosis equipment for cartilage diagnosis in the future was fabricated. Acoustic properties of the phantom fabricated for MRI apparatus evaluation were measured, and it was verified whether the acoustic properties of the phantom are close to those of the normal cartilage, which are set as the target values. In addition, as the fundamental physical properties of the cartilage phantom, the Young's modulus and the density were also measured. As a result, a cartilage phantom that satisfies target values of transverse relaxation time (T2) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and a target value of speed of sound (SOS) could be fabricated.