Abstract
A nontoxic heat-sensitive gel containing 1.5 % (w/v) agar and 25 % (w/v) bovine serum albumin (BSA) was fabricated in this study. Optical density measurements with 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser indicated that, in spite of its BSA content, the current agar + BSA gel remained similar to agar only gel in terms of its optical response to NIR laser. The thermal response of the current agar + BSA gel to high temperatures was quantified using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). According to the MRI measurements of T2 relaxation rate as a function of heating temperature, the current agar + BSA gel showed a linear response to heating temperatures between 65 and 80 °C, while it remained thermally stable at temperatures up to 80 °C. Therefore, the current agar + BSA gel can be used as thermal dosimeters or volumetric heat-sensitive gel phantoms in typical thermal therapy regime.
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Acknowledgements
This investigation was supported by the US Department of Defense, Breast Cancer Research Program, Concept Award, W81XWH-08-1-0686.
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Siddiqi, A.K., Cho, S.H. Agar-based heat-sensitive gel with linear thermal response over 65–80 °C. J Therm Anal Calorim 111, 1805–1809 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2491-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-012-2491-3