Elasticity QA Phantom

Model 049 & 049A
Developed to Provide Users with Acoustic Targets of Discrete Known Stiffness
  • Four types of lesions with discrete elastic moduli (Contact CIRS for custom moduli)
  • Compatible with both shear wave and compression elastography
  • Customized versions available for magnetic resonance elastography
  • Ensure over ten years of reliable use through reinspection and repair services

Includes best in industry four-year warranty

The Model 049 and 049A Elasticity QA Phantoms are tools developed for both shear wave and compression elastography. These are the only phantoms commercially available for sonoelastography quality assurance. The phantoms contain targets of known stiffness relative to the background material and range in stiffness, diameter and depth.

The Model 049 is a basic QA phantom as it contains two sizes of spheres positioned at two different depths. At each depth there are two spheres that are softer than the background and two that are harder than the background.

For a broader range of target sizes, the Model 049A phantom has stepped mass targets instead of spheres. Each stepped mass consists of six diameters so that you can evaluate the ability to visualize targets that are located at the same depth and have the same relative stiffness but vary in diameter. The Model 049A is housed in the same size container as the original Model 049.

Both phantoms come standard with a four-year warranty and carry case.

Models 049 & 049A are Suitable for:
  • Determining dynamic range
  • Checking system performance over time
  • Training and demonstrating of system features
  • Research and development

Data Sheet

Elasticity QA Phantom: Data Sheet

Götschi, Tobias; Schulz, Nicole; Snedeker, Jess G; Hanimann, Jonas; Franchi, Martino V; Spörri, Jörg; 'Three-Dimensional Mapping of Shear Wave Velocity in Human Tendon: A Proof of Concept Study'. Sensors. 2021; 21 (5): 1655. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. View

Summary: 3D maps of unidirectional shear wave velocity are proposed as a method for reducing position-dependant errors associated with conventional 2D renderings. Feasibility of the technique was first tested using the Model 49 Elasticity QA phantom prior to human subject tests on the Achilles and patellar tendons.
Zhu, Xinjian; Chen, Li; Liu, Shanna; Fang, Kai; Wu, Ruoyu; Tu, Guojin; Liu, JianLin; Shen, Yuqiang; Zhou, Qingli; 'An Ultrasonic Elastography Method Based on Variable Length of Filter in Strain Computation'. Sensing and Imaging. 2021; View

Summary: A novel strain estimator, based on a variable length filter, that is used for ultrasound elastography was demonstrated on elastic phantoms. The results show that better strain image presentation effects, clearer boundaries, and higher contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) have been achieved in regions of interest compared with the conventional method.
Gurbatov, Sergey; Demin, Igor; Lisin, Artem; Pronchatov-Rubtsov, Nikolay; Spivak, Aleksey; 'Shear Wave Propagation in Soft Biological Tissues: A Comparison of Numerical and Physical Modeling'. Multiscale Solid Mechanics. 2021; 175-181. Springer, Cham. View

Summary: Numerical simulations of shear wave propagation in soft biological tissues was experimentally validated on a Model 49 Elasticity QA phantom.
Edwards, Christopher, et al. 'Intra-System Reliability Assessment of 2-Dimensional Shear Wave Elastography'. Applied Science. 2021; 11 (7): 2992. MDPI. View
Khodayi-mehr, Reza; Urban, Matthew W; Zavlanos, Michael M; Aquino, Wilkins; 'Plane Wave Elastography: A Frequency-Domain Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography Approach'. arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.04121. 2021; View
Al Mukaddim, Rashid; Weichmann, Ashley M; Mitchell, Carol C; Varghese, Tomy; 'Ultrasound strain imaging using spatiotemporal Bayesian regularized multi-level block matching method'. Medical Imaging 2021: Physics of Medical Imaging. 2021; SPIE. View
Weber, Timothy D; Khetan, Nikunj; Yang, Ruohui; Mertz, Jerome; 'Ultrasound differential phase contrast using backscattering and the memory effect'. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.02734. 2021; View
Chintada, Bhaskara Rao; Rau, Richard; Goksel, Orcun; 'Phase-Aberration Correction in Shear-wave Elastography Imaging Using Local Speed-of-Sound Adaptive Beamforming'. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.02734. 2021; View
Kheirkhah, Niusha; Dempsey, Sergio CH; Rivaz, Hassan; Samani, Abbas; Sadeghi-Naini, Ali; 'A Tissue Mechanics Based Method to Improve Tissue Displacement Estimation in Ultrasound Elastography'. 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC). 2020; IEEE. View

Summary: "In this study, we propose a tissue mechanics-based method aiming at improving the quality of estimated displacement data. We applied the method to RF data acquired from a tissue-mimicking phantom. The results indicated that the method is effective in improving the quality of the displacement data."
Khetan, Nikunj; Weber, Timothy; Mertz, Jerome; 'Speed-of-sound imaging by differential phase contrast with angular compounding'. arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.03156. 2020; View

Summary: A new method for measuring speed of sound variations in tissue via angular compounding demonstrated the ability to relative changes is small as 0.5% in the Model 49 Elasticity QA phantom. (Note all elasticity targets in the Model 49 also exhibit proportial increases in their speed of sound.)
Tehrani, Ali KZ; Mirzaei, Morteza; Rivaz, Hassan; 'Semi-supervised training of optical flow convolutional neural networks in ultrasound elastography'. arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.07949. 2020; View
Pohlman, Robert M; Varghese, Tomy; 'Physiological Motion Reduction Using Lagrangian Tracking for Electrode Displacement Elastography'. Ultrasound in medicine & biology. 2020; 46 (3): 766-781. Elsevier. View
Spivak, AE; Demin, I Yu; 'Description and implementation of the Supersonic Shear Imaging method on the Verasonics research system'. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. 2020; View
Tehrani, Ali KZ; Amiri, Mina; Rivaz, Hassan; 'Real-time and High Quality Ultrasound Elastography Using Convolutional Neural Network by Incorporating Analytic Signal'. 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC). 2020; 2051-2054. IEEE. View
Ahmed, Rifat; Doyley, Marvin M; 'Parallel Receive Beamforming Improves the Performance of Focused Transmit-Based Single-Track Location Shear Wave Elastography'. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control. 2020; 67 (10): View
Harris, E., Miller, NR. Et al. Speckle tracking in a phantom feature-based tracking in liver in the presence of respiratory motion using 4D ultrasound. Phys. Med. Biol. 55 2010; 55; 3363-3380. View
McAleavey, Stephen A. Methods and Systems for Spatially Modulated Ultrasound Radiation Force Imaging. Patent US2011/0184287 A1. 28 July 2011.
Cournane, S., Fagan, A., & Browne, J. (2012) Review of Ultrasound Elastography Quality Control and Training Test Phantoms. Ultrasound February vol. 20, no. 1-2. doi:10.1258/ult.2012.012e01 View
Long, Zaiyang, et al. “Clinical Acceptance Testing and Scanner Comparison of Ultrasound Shear Wave Elastography.” Journal of Applied Clinical Medical Physics, vol. 19, no. 3, 2018, pp. 336–342., doi:10.1002/acm2.12310. View
Schneider C, Baghani A, Rohling R, Salcudean S. Remote ultrasound palpation for robotic interventions using absolute elastography. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2012;15(Pt 1):42-9.
Azar RZ, Dickie K, Pelissier L. Real-time 1-D/2-D transient elastography on a standard ultrasound scanner using mechanically induced vibration. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2012;59(10):2167-77. 
Azar, R. Z., Baghani, A., Salcudean, S. E., Rohling, R., & 2010 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium, IUS 2010. (December 01, 2010). Dynamic elastography using delay compensated and angularly compounded high frame rate 2D motion vectors. Proceedings - Ieee Ultrasonics Symposium, 1616-1619. View
Nabavizadeh, A., Song, P., Chen, S., Greenleaf, J., & Urban, M. (2014). Shear wave generation with steered ultrasound push beams. 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium. 
Bae, S., Song, T., & Chang, J. (2014). New shear wave velocity estimation using arrival time differences in orthogonal directions. 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium.
Mehrmohammadi, M., Denis, M., Song, P., Chen, S., Fatemi, M., & Alizad, A. (2014). Comb-Push Ultrasound Shear Elastography of thyroid: Preliminary in vivo human study. 2014 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium. 
Chen, Zhaohong, Yongdong Chen, and Qinghua Huang. "Development of a Wireless and Near Real-Time 3D Ultrasound Strain Imaging System."IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (2015): 1. Web. 
Sahebjavaher RS, Nir G, Gagnon LO, et al. MR elastography and diffusion-weighted imaging of ex vivo prostate cancer: quantitative comparison to histopathology. NMR Biomed. 2015;28(1):89-100.  View
Huang Q, Xie B, Ye P, Chen Z. 3-D ultrasonic strain imaging based on a linear scanning system. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2015;62(2):392-400. 
Mulabecirovic A, Vesterhus M, Gilja OH, Havre RF. In Vitro Comparison of Five Different Elastography Systems for Clinical Applications, Using Strain and Shear Wave Technology. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2016;42(11):2572-2588.  View
 He, X., X. Diao, H. Lin, et al. "Using Coded Excitation to Detect Tissue Vibration in Ultrasonic Elastography." American Scientific Publishers, Feb. 2017. Web. View
He, X.N., X.F. Diao, H.M. Lin, et al. "Improved Shear Wave Motion Detection Using Coded Excitation for Transient Elastography." Scientific Reports, 2017. Web.  View
Horeh, M. D., A. Asif, and H. Rivaz. "REGULARIZED TRACKING OF SHEAR-WAVE IN ULTRASOUND ELASTOGRAPHY." Concordia University, Montreal, 2017. Web. View

References