Nickel-doped agarose gel phantoms in MR imaging

A method for the production of a tissue-mimicking phantom material for MR imaging is described. The material consists of a nickel-doped agarose gel. The T1 and T2 values of the gel can be varied independently by changing the relative amounts of nickel and agarose. Practically any T1 and T2 combination of clinical interest can be obtained. The long-term stability was studied and found to be good. The relaxation times were estimated using an MR analyzer. The accuracy and the reproducibility of these measurements were evaluated and found to be reassuring. Gel phantoms were also scanned in an MR unit. The signal strength of an inversion recovery sequence was evaluated using the gel phantoms in order to verify their usefulness. These measurements were compared to theory with good agreement. Furthermore, tissue-equivalent phantoms were made. Gels resembling gray matter, white matter, and CSF were scanned. Comparisons with clinical in vivo scans, as well as calculated levels were made. It is anticipated that the gel phantoms described here will be useful in quality assurance as well as in pulse sequence optimization.