A 3D-printed phantom for quality-controlled reproducibility measurements of arterial spin labeled perfusion

To develop a portable MR perfusion phantom for quality-controlled assessment and reproducibility of arterial spin labeled (ASL) perfusion measurement.

A 3D-printed perfusion phantom was developed that mimics the branching of arterial vessels, capillaries, and a chamber containing cellulose sponge representing tissue characteristics. A peristaltic pump circulated distilled water through the phantom, and was first evaluated at 300, 400, and 500 mL/min. Longitudinal reproducibility of perfusion was performed using 2D pseudo-continuous ASL at 20 post-label delays (PLDs, ranging between 0.2 and 7.8 s at 0.4-s intervals) over a period of 16 weeks, with three repetitions each week. Multi-PLD data were fitted into a general kinetic model for perfusion quantification (f) and arterial transit time (ATT). Intraclass correlation coefficient was used to assess intersession reproducibility.

MR perfusion signals acquired in the 3D-printed perfusion phantom agreed well with the experimental conditions, with progressively increasing signal intensities and decreasing ATT for pump flow rates from 300 to 500 mL/min. The perfusion signal at 400 mL/min and the general kinetic model-derived f and ATT maps were similar across all PLDs for both intrasession and intersession reproducibility. Across all 48 experimental time points, the average f was 75.55 ± 3.83 × 10^-3  mL/mL/s, the corresponding ATT was 2.10 ± 0.20 s, and the T₁ was 1.84 ± 0.102 s. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.83-0.97) for f, 0.96 (0.91-0.99) for ATT, and 0.94 (0.88-0.98) for T₁ , demonstrating excellent reproducibility.

A simple, portable 3D-printed perfusion phantom with excellent reproducibility of 2D pseudo-continuous ASL measurements was demonstrated that can serve for quality-controlled and reliable measurements of ASL perfusion.