Flow model with vessel tree for segmentation and registration with color Doppler ultrasound and CT

Numerous phantoms for human organs are commercially available or designed for scientific purposes. None of these combine the imaging possibility with color Doppler ultrasound (CDU) and computer tomography (CT) while providing vessel branches with bifurcations as natural landmarks. We designed, built and evaluated a flow model with vessel tree which can be imaged with CDU and CT. It aims at development and reproducible evaluation of segmentation and registration work under realistic conditions. The colored representation of vessels in CDU compared to grayscaled representation in B-Mode simplifies and stabilizes the necessary segmentation process. The used tube construct with several bifurcations represents a simplified vessel tree and can be operated with various blood mimicking fluids. The usability and practical value of the model with respect to flow characteristics and visibility of bifurcations were tested and confirmed in experiments with state-of-the-art CDU and CT equipment.