Fabrication and Optical Characterization of Gelatin-Based Phantoms for Tissue Oximetry.

Multispectral/hyperspectral imaging is one of the imaging modalities to visualize and quantify blood supply in surface tissues such as skin or mucosa. The results of visualization can be potentially affected by various factors, for instance by elevated methemoglobin (MetHb) content (e.g., methemoglobinemia). The scope of the current study is to develop a robust approach for fabrication and validation of tissue-mimicking phantoms, which can be used to assess and improve tissue oximetry.
Methods: The realistic tissue mimicking gelatin-based phantoms with intralipid (4% v/v) and/or hemoglobins (oxy-, deoxyhemoglobins, and MetHb) were molded between two coverslips separated by 2-mm wires. The hemoglobin solutions were prepared by dissolving the lyophilized human hemoglobin powder (H7379, Sigma-Aldrich) in the deionized water. Sodium dithionite (85% purity, 157,953, Sigma-Aldrich) was used to reduce MetHb solution. The phantoms were imaged using a multispectral imaging device (Oxilight, Canada).To demonstrate the utility, the developed approach is applied to emulate elevated systemic MetHb content.
Results: Initial results show that elevated systemic MetHb (2.0-6.7% of total blood) does not impact the accuracy of tissue oximetry imaging.
Discussion: A robust method for fabrication and optical validation of biocompatible tissue-mimicking phantoms has been developed.The proposed phantom design allows combining different phantoms into multilayer (sandwich) structures, which can be used to emulate a wide range of topical and systemic conditions.