Development of MRI Phantom for Assessing MR Image Quality

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To evaluate MR image qualities we developed a new MRI phantom with the fixation structures necessary to position it into coil firmly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We designed MRI phantom for eight evaluation items such as slice thickness accuracy, high contrast spatial resolution, low contrast object detectability, geometry accuracy, slice position accuracy, image intensity uniformity, percent signal ghosting and signal to noise ratio. For the positioning of phantom at coils, the fixation structures were set up on the surface of phantom. Six different MRI units were used for test the possibility for the clinical application and their image qualities were evaluated. RESULTS: We acquired appropriate MR image qualities enough for the evaluation on all used MR units and confirmed that their evaluations were within reliable values compared to real ones for some items. The positioning of our phantom into head coils with fixation structures worked well for proper imaging. CONCLUSION: We found that our prototype of MRI phantom had the possibility of clinical application for MR image quality assessment.