Sodium Alginate Ultrasound Phantom for Medical Education.

The ultrasound phantoms used to educate medical students should not only closely mimic the ultrasound characteristics of human soft tissues but also be inexpensive and easy to manufacture. I have been studying handmade ultrasound phantoms and proposed an ultrasound phantom comprising calcium alginate hydrogel that met these requirements but caused a speckle pattern similar to that observed in ultrasound images of liver. In this study, I show that adding ethanol to the precursors used to fabricate the phantom reduces the speckle pattern.

Ultrasound Phantom Using Sodium Alginate as a Gelling Agent.

For medical workers, ultrasound phantoms for human soft tissue are used not only for accuracy management of ultrasound diagnosis but also to aid ultrasound-guided needle and blind catheter insertion training without risk to real patients. For the phantoms, ultrasound characteristics and a texture are required to mimic the human soft tissue. The proposed phantom was composed of sodium alginate, calcium sulfate dihydrate, trisodium phosphate 12-hydrate, glycerol, and water.

Propionate sensor using coenzyme-A transferase and acyl-CoA oxidase.

We developed an amperometric propionate sensor using comprised of two recombinant enzymes, propionate coenzyme A CoA transferase from Clostridium propionicum and short-chain acyl-CoA oxidase from Arabidopsis thaliana. Response current increased linearly with increase in propionate concentration from 10 microM to 100 microM. The detection limit was 10 microM propionate.