Ficoll as testing material for diffusion weighted imaging-quality assurance phantoms

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Polymer Science
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) is crucial for MRI diagnostics.
• Developing reliable phantoms for DWI quality assurance is essential.
• Ficoll, a branched polymer, exhibits crowding properties suitable for phantom development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate aqueous Ficoll solutions for creating a phantom for DWI MRI.
• To assess the phantom's suitability for quality assurance in MRI acquisitions.

Main Methods:

• A 3D phantom was designed with vials containing Ficoll solutions (5-30% concentration) and ultra-pure water.
• Experiments were conducted on 1.5T and 3T clinical MRI scanners.
• Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) and relaxation times (T1, T2) were measured.

Main Results:

• The phantom design reduced imaging artifacts.
• Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) decreased linearly with increasing Ficoll concentration (0.00125-0.00223 mm²/s).
• Results showed good consistency across time and scanners (3% variability at 1.5T, 7.5% at 3T).
• Both T1 and T2 relaxation times decreased with Ficoll concentration.

Conclusions:

• A 3D phantom using Ficoll is proposed for DWI MRI quality assurance.
• Aqueous Ficoll solutions offer stability, ease of preparation, and safety.
• The phantom effectively mimics tissue properties and provides reproducible measurements.