A Physiologic Left Ventricle Flow Phantom for 4D Flow MRI Applications and CFD Verification.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Imaging
• Computational Fluid Dynamics

Background:

• In vivo validation of cardiac MRI and CFD simulations is hindered by scan time and motion artifacts.
• Accurate modeling of intracardiac hemodynamics requires robust, reproducible data.
• Existing phantoms often lack realistic cardiac motion and anatomical detail.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a subject-specific, MRI-compatible left ventricle (LV) phantom for validating cardiac MRI and CFD simulations.
• To create a phantom capable of reproducing cardiac motion and physiological flow patterns.
• To provide a stable platform for generating high-fidelity data for model development.

Main Methods:

• Fabricated a left ventricle (LV) phantom from PVA-based hydrogel for MRI contrast, stability, and reusability.
• Integrated aortic and mitral valves to approximate physiological opening and closing.
• Utilized a closed-loop circulation system with an MRI-safe pump to reproduce cardiac motion and flow.

Main Results:

• The LV phantom accurately replicated healthy end-diastolic and end-systolic geometries with physiological contraction.
• 4D flow MRI confirmed realistic intracardiac flow patterns, including vortex ring formation and systolic outflow.
• The phantom enabled CFD simulations incorporating LV and valve motion, demonstrating its utility for in vitro validation.

Conclusions:

• The developed LV phantom offers a stable, MRI-compatible platform for generating reproducible data to validate intracardiac hemodynamic models.
• The phantom's realistic anatomy, motion, and flow support both simulation validation and MRI sequence development.
• Future work will refine valve kinematics and LV motion fidelity for enhanced realism.