Quantitative imaging: systematic review of perfusion/flow phantoms

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• Quantitative perfusion imaging (PI) requires robust validation methods.
• Perfusion/flow phantoms are crucial for evaluating PI accuracy.
• Standardized best practices for phantom design and use are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the design and realization of perfusion/flow phantoms.
• To encourage best practices in developing phantoms for quantitative PI.
• To provide insights into contemporary phantom approaches for PI validation.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search on Scopus database (1999-2018).
• Keywords: "perfusion", "flow", "phantom".
• Extracted data on phantom design, PI techniques, and applications.

Main Results:

• 37 articles accepted, focusing on PI simulation in various tissues (brain, liver, tumors) and modalities (MRI, CT, ultrasound).
• Three main phantom designs identified: basic, aligned capillary, and tissue-filled.
• Limited control over inter-compartmental fluid exchange and only one commercial phantom found.

Conclusions:

• Contemporary phantom approaches offer ground truth for quantitative PI.
• Investigators must verify phantom modeling assumptions against their specific PI application.
• Further development and standardization of perfusion phantoms are recommended.