Development of Improved Liver Steatosis Phantoms for Accurate Histopathologic Representation and Multimodal Imaging
- 1Hebron High School, Carrollton, Texas
- 2UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
- 3University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract
Despite advances in ultrasound-based noninvasive hepatic steatosis quantification, current methods remain insensitive to the microstructural phenotype of lipid accumulation, which influences outcomes in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. A methodology is introduced to generate tissue-mimicking phantom models that replicate the lobular liver histologic structure and pathologic patterns of steatosis. Phantoms consist of packed alginate capsules that mimic liver lobules and maintain continuous inter-capsule contact, embedded in agar. Lipid microparticles of controlled size and concentration are encapsulated within these capsules together with perfluorooctyl bromide microparticles serving as background scatterers. This architecture enables control of microscopic features (lipid vacuole size and density) and macroscopic organization (lobular-scale heterogeneity), both of which are expected to influence quantitative acoustic measurements, thereby more closely reproducing the histologic structure and acoustic behavior of healthy and diseased liver tissue. Phantoms with 0% and 20% fat (weight/volume) exhibit liver-like appearance on B-mode ultrasound imaging, with ultrasound-derived fat fraction and acoustic attenuation correlating with fat content. Chosen constituents enable compatibility with MRI and CT. This platform provides a structurally realistic model to refine and develop ultrasound liver fat quantification techniques and to support cross-vendor standardization, as well as cross-modality validation of ultrasound-based liver fat quantification using MRI and CT.
Related
- A CAP–ALT–HbA1c Model for Biopsy-Confirmed Moderate-to-Severe Hepatic Steatosis in Bariatric Surgery Candidates: Development and Internal Validation
- Standardized Transducer Placement Representation for Improved Reviewability of Ultrasound Examinations
- Multimodal molecular representation and property prediction based on structured complementary feature fusion
- TempoCross: instance-aware sparse representation for multimodal temporal fusion in 3D detection
- High-Flow Nasal Oxygenation Is Associated with Improved Respiratory Stability During Moderate Multimodal Analgosedation for Pars Plana Vitrectomy: A Randomized Controlled Trial
BibTeX
@misc{park2026development,
title = {{Development of Improved Liver Steatosis Phantoms for Accurate Histopathologic Representation and Multimodal Imaging}},
author = {Esther Park and Adam Woodward and Nazia Hafeez and Anbarin Khalid and Shariq Ali and Liqiang Ren and Yue Zhang and Ivan M. Rosado-Mendez and David T. Fetzer and Caroline de Gracia Lux},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-g2h53/v2},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-g2h53/v2},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Development of Improved Liver Steatosis Phantoms for Accurate Histopathologic Representation and Multimodal Imaging
AU - Esther Park
AU - Adam Woodward
AU - Nazia Hafeez
AU - Anbarin Khalid
AU - Shariq Ali
AU - Liqiang Ren
AU - Yue Zhang
AU - Ivan M. Rosado-Mendez
AU - David T. Fetzer
AU - Caroline de Gracia Lux
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-g2h53/v2
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-g2h53/v2
AB - Despite advances in ultrasound-based noninvasive hepatic steatosis quantification, current methods remain insensitive to the microstructural phenotype of lipid accumulation, which influences outcomes in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. A methodology is introduced to generate tissue-mimicking phantom models that replicate the lobular liver histologic structure and pathologic patterns of steatosis. Phantoms consist of packed alginate capsules that mimic liver lobules and maintain continuous inter-capsule contact, embedded in agar. Lipid microparticles of controlled size and concentration are encapsulated within these capsules together with perfluorooctyl bromide microparticles serving as background scatterers. This architecture enables control of microscopic features (lipid vacuole size and density) and macroscopic organization (lobular-scale heterogeneity), both of which are expected to influence quantitative acoustic measurements, thereby more closely reproducing the histologic structure and acoustic behavior of healthy and diseased liver tissue. Phantoms with 0% and 20% fat (weight/volume) exhibit liver-like appearance on B-mode ultrasound imaging, with ultrasound-derived fat fraction and acoustic attenuation correlating with fat content. Chosen constituents enable compatibility with MRI and CT. This platform provides a structurally realistic model to refine and develop ultrasound liver fat quantification techniques and to support cross-vendor standardization, as well as cross-modality validation of ultrasound-based liver fat quantification using MRI and CT.
ER -