Fractional Derivative Models and Their Use in the Characterization of Hydropolymer and In-vivo Breast Tissue Viscoelasticity By

The Viscoelastic response of hydropolymers, which include gelatin phantom and glandular breast tissue, may be accurately characterized with as few as three parameters using the Kelvin-Voigt Fractional Derivative (KVFD) modeling approach. We propose to image these parameters for simulated and experimental imaging phantoms and to estimate them for normal and cancerous in-vivo breast tissues. After a detailed presentation of the processing algorithm and discussion of its performances, we analyze the KVFD parameter values in simulated and experimental hydrogels. We show that the KVFD parameters can separate the biphasic mechanical properties of hydropolymers that describe the response of its solid and fluidic components and present the effects of pH and concentration changes in gelatin phantoms. We then interpret average results observed in normal and cancerous breast tissues and show that this modeling approach may be applied to tumor differentiation.