Development, evaluation, and overview of standardized training phantoms for abdominal ultrasound-guided interventions.

Purpose: Ultrasound (US) represents the primary approach for abdominal diagnosis and is regularly used to guide diagnostic and therapeutic interventions (INVUS). Due to possible serious INVUS complications, structured training concepts are required. Phantoms can facilitate teaching, but their use is currently restricted by complex manufacturing and short durability of the materials.

Poled composites with Nd-Mn-doped PZT fibers under bipolar electrical load.

Using the sol-gel process, Nd-Mn-doped PZT fibers were produced. The PZT was doped with 2 mol% neodymium and 1.1 mol% manganese.