P3E-2 Generalized Simulation of Ultrasonic Backscattering Based on Three-dimensional Modeling of Random Heterogeneous Media: Application to Blood

The modeling and simulation of biological tissue could provide insight into the acoustical backscattering properties of biological tissue at microscopic scales. Therefore, blood is modeled as a stochastic, heterogeneous medium. The realizations of this stochastic process are evaluated by means of autocorrelation functions and the acoustic backscattering coefficient is derived from them. A Metropolis algorithm in conjunction with concentric shell pair potential functions and square well pair potential functions is employed in order to generate two-dimensional and three-dimensional distributions of erythrocytes within plasma. These functions are used for generating uniform distributions, aggregations, and rouleaux of erythrocytes. Comparing the backscattering coefficient of the simulated structures with experimental data for multiple hematocrit values (10-40 %) yields a root mean square error of 1.56% for a uniform three-dimensional distribution with an overlap factor of 0.8