Design and construction of an innovative brain phantom prototype for MRI

Aprile, Anna; Santini, Francesco; Deligianni, Xeni; Magon, Stefano; Sprenger, Till; Kappos, Ludwig; Cattin, Philippe C.; Wuerfel, Jens; Gaetano, Laura

doi:10.1002/mrm.27464

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Gradually pouring the silicone over a plastic sheet covering the internal faces of the mold helped mitigating this problem, yet some susceptibility artifacts due to air bubbles at the edges of the inclusions (see Figure 5 in the proximity of I3) remained. To solve this issue, one can envision either using materials with smooth and solid surfaces for all the molding parts, such as PMMA or silicone molds with anti-adherent coating [59], scanners with lower magnetic field strengths, or a vacuum chamber for degassing during the fabrication process. Viscosity is another important aspect of the silicone material, and in our case it was greater than what is reported for other commonly used MRE phantoms.…”

Section: Discussion Silicone Based Phantoms For Mrementioning

confidence: 99%

Elastography Validity Criteria Definition Using Numerical Simulations and MR Acquisitions on a Low-Cost Structured Phantom

et al. 2021

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MR Elastography is a novel technique enabling the quantification of mechanical properties in tissue with MRI. It relies on a three-step process that includes the generation of a mechanical vibration, motion capture using dedicated MR sequences, and data processing involving inversion algorithms. If not properly tuned to the targeted application, each of those steps may impact the final outcome, potentially causing diagnostic errors and thus eventually treatment mismanagement. Different approaches exist that account for acquisition or reconstruction errors, but simple tools and metrics for quality control shared by both developers and end-users are still missing. In this context, our goal is to provide an easily deployable workflow that uses generic validity criteria to assess the performance of a given MRE protocol, leveraging numerical simulations with an accessible experimental setup. Numerical simulations are used to help both determining sets of relevant acquisition parameters and assessing the data processing's robustness. Simple validity criteria were defined, and the overall pipeline was tested in a custom-built, structured phantom made of silicone-based material. The latter have the advantage of being inexpensive, easy to handle, facilitate the fabrication of complex structures which geometry resembles the anatomical structures of interest, and are longitudinally stable. In this work, we successfully tested and evaluated the overall performances of our entire MR Elastography pipeline using easy-to-implement and accessible tools that could ultimately translate in MRE standardized and cost-effective procedures.

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Section: Discussion Silicone Based Phantoms For Mrementioning

confidence: 99%

Elastography Validity Criteria Definition Using Numerical Simulations and MR Acquisitions on a Low-Cost Structured Phantom

et al. 2021

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“…SLA resin is one of the costlier 3D printing materials. Other studies [7,[15][16][17][18][19] have used various 3D printer film material for the casing of the MRI phantoms. These materials are polycarbonate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, polylactic acid thermoplastics and selective laser sintering (SLS) material.…”

Section: D Printingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each study [1,7,[15][16][17][18][19]23] provides strategies and limitations to head phantom development. Thus, it is imperative during the phantom design to develop alternative strategies to address these limitations.…”

Section: Limitations To Fabrication Design and Alternative Strategies Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anatomical phantoms were either designed as a homogeneous anatomical phantom [27] or a specified anatomy of the head [17]. Later, multitissue MR phantoms were developed and validated [28][29][30]; and multitissue MR phantoms [7,15,31,32] became more robust in the 2010s by utilizing the evolving 3D printing technology and enhanced neuroimaging tools.…”

Section: Future Of Phantom Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How to design and construct a 3D-printed human head phantom

2019

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In this paper, we will provide a methodology for head phantom development based on in vivo imaging data attained utilizing MRI. The anthropomorphic phantom can be designed to mimic human anatomy. In medical physics, phantoms are physical and/or numerical tools created to represent specified characteristics of human anatomy [1-5]. Phantoms are a less expensive approach for testing and validation of a variety of applications, such as communication or medical diagnostic imaging tools [1,5-7]. Phantoms offer the capability to perform safety testing of diagnostic imaging tools and potentially minimize harmful exposure to a human. A variety of simple commercial [8] and geometric [3,5] phantoms have been used in various medical applications. The development of anthropomorphic phantoms dates back to the 1960s [9,10]. Additive manufacturing, referred to as 3D printing, has become an increasingly useful tool to develop these complex and anatomically accurate phantoms [11]. In a recent review [12], *

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“…However, phantoms designed with this method cannot reproduce fine structures due to the limitations of 3-dimensional printing. Altermatt et al 7 described a novel approach for producing highly realistic 3D phantoms using anatomically derived silicone molds. By casting agar in the molds, the authors were able to build a multi-compartment 3D phantom.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative anatomy mimicking slice phantoms

Gopalan

Tamir

Arias

et al. 2021

Magnetic Resonance in Med

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To present a reproducible methodology for building an anatomy mimicking phantom with targeted T 1 and T 2 contrast for use in quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. Methods: We propose a reproducible method for creating high-resolution, quantitative slice phantoms. The phantoms are created using gels with different concentrations of NiCl 2 and MnCl 2 to achieve targeted T 1 and T 2 values. We describe a calibration method for accurately targeting anatomically realistic relaxation pairs.In addition, we developed a method of fabricating slice phantoms by extruding 3D printed walls on acrylic sheets. These procedures are combined to create a physical analog of the Brainweb digital phantom. Results: With our method, we are able to target specific T 1 /T 2 values with less than 10% error. Additionally, our slice phantoms look realistic since their geometries are derived from anatomical data. Conclusion: Standardized and accurate tools for validating new techniques across sequences, platforms, and different imaging sites are important. Anatomy mimicking, multi-contrast phantoms designed with our procedures could be used for evaluating, testing, and verifying model-based methods. K E Y W O R D S3D printing, digital manufacturing, phantom, quantitative F I G U R E 1 Process flow of converting an image of a brain slice into a phantom. A,B, Solutions of paramagnetic ions NiCl 2 and MnCl 2 are prepared with agar and salt to calibrate the influence of their concentrations on T 1 /T 2 . C, A slice of a brain is acquired, 14 segmented into compartments, and labeled. The compartment boundaries are 3D printed onto an acrylic sheet. D, Premixed gels are blended following different linear combinations to target specific R1 and R2 values. Different blend compositions are used to fill each compartment according to the anatomy. E, Finally, the phantom is scanned for verification and visualized here with a T 1 -weighted image

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Design and construction of an innovative brain phantom prototype for MRI

Abstract: Structural and intensity properties of the constructed phantoms are useful in evaluating and validating steps from image acquisition to image processing. Moreover, the described constructing procedure and its modular design make it adjustable to a variety of applications.

Cited by 18 publications

References 13 publications

Elastography Validity Criteria Definition Using Numerical Simulations and MR Acquisitions on a Low-Cost Structured Phantom

Elastography Validity Criteria Definition Using Numerical Simulations and MR Acquisitions on a Low-Cost Structured Phantom

How to design and construct a 3D-printed human head phantom

Quantitative anatomy mimicking slice phantoms

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