Ultrasonic propagation in mammalian cell suspensions based on a shell model

The interaction of ultrasonic waves with individual cells has been modelled on the basis that the cells can be represented by viscous liquid spheres surrounded by a viscoelastic shell (the membrane) immersed in a viscous fluid. The computational model includes thermal waves and requires 22 input parameters. Many of the parameters are not available in the literature and a detailed discussion is given on the procedures by which the values used in the model calculations were chosen. In spite of the arbitrariness of the choice of many of the parameter values, the computations show surprisingly good agreement with experimental measurements of ultrasonic attenuation in animal cell suspensions. The model has been used here to investigate different aspects of the interaction of ultrasound with the cells. It is found that the membrane is important only between 0.5 and 30 MHz and contributes less than 15% to the attenuation. Absorption is shown to be an important feature to include, while the scattering contribution to the attenuation is less than 1% at 3 MHz. The thermal effects are important at frequencies below 1 MHz and contribute some 65% to the attenuation at 100 MHz.