Highlights
- •Multi-modality medical imaging Head & Neck phantom for quality assurance, experimental testing and training.
- •Realistic vasculature and micro-vasculature hardware and software model for flow imaging and perfusion scanning.
- •Physiologically realistic pressure-flow dynamics.
- •Tissue equivalent structures.
- •Demonstration for MRI, X-ray CT, Doppler Ultrasound and Nuclear Medicine.
Abstract
A novel anthropomorphic head and neck phantom which features the emulation of blood
flow and perfusion is proposed. The phantom is helpful in both education and research
and contains major blood vessels and a porous silicone elastomer brain compartment
with microvascular capillary flow. The porous brain compartment is fabricated by use
of a novel cast-moulding-dissolution technique. The skull and vertebra are fabricated
by a combination of 3D printing and cast-moulding and are tissue equivalent with CT
numbers ranging from 1000 HU to 1200 HU. The elastic structure of the phantom allows
ultrasound imaging in the neck region. MRI compatible pressure sensors measure the
pressure in the carotic arteries and the jugular veins and pulsatile flow is created
by use of a peristaltic pump. The pressure-flow dynamics are physiologically realistic
and also matches well with computational simulations of porous Darcy flow. The phantom
can be used to optimize and validate MRI pulse sequences and protocols for flow imaging,
MR angiography, Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) and dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 19, 2022
Accepted:
February 9,
2022
Received:
February 9,
2022
Identification
Copyright
Crown Copyright © 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica e Sanitaria. All rights reserved.
