A Reusable Thermochromic Phantom for Testing High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Technologies

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) surgery is a promising technology for the treatment of several pathologies, including cancer. Testing is a fundamental step for verifying treatment efficacy and safety. Ex-vivo tissues represent the most common solution for replicating the properties of human tissues in the HIFU operative scenario. However, they constitute an avoidable waste of resources. Thus, tissue mimicking phantoms have been investigated as a more sustainable and reliable alternative. In this scenario, we proposed a reusable silicone-based thermochromic phantom. It is cost-effective and can be rapidly fabricated. The acoustic, mechanical, and thermal characterization of the phantom are reported. The phantom usability was evaluated with a HIFU robotic platform. 18 different working conditions were tested by varying both sonication power and duration. Temperature and simulated lesions’ size were quantified for all testing conditions. An accordance between temperature and lesion dimension trend over time was found. The proposed phantom results a valid alternative to ex-vivo tissues, especially in the early stages of developing novel HIFU treatment paradigms.