Quantitative anatomy mimicking slice phantoms

Purpose: To present a reproducible methodology for building an anatomy mimicking phantom with targeted T1 and T2 contrast for use in quantitative magnetic resonance imaging.
Methods: We propose a reproducible method for creating high-resolution, quantitative slice phantoms. The phantoms are created using gels with different concentrations of NiCl2 and MnCl2 to achieve targeted T1 and T2 values. We describe a calibration method for accurately targeting anatomically realistic relaxation pairs. In addition, we developed a method of fabricating slice phantoms by extruding 3D printed walls on acrylic sheets. These procedures are combined to create a physical analog of the Brainweb digital phantom.
Results: With our method, we are able to target specific T1/T2 values with less than 10% error. Additionally, our slice phantoms look realistic since their geometries are derived from anatomical data.
Conclusion: Standardized and accurate tools for validating new techniques across sequences, platforms, and different imaging sites are important. Anatomy mimicking, multi-contrast phantoms designed with our procedures could be used for evaluating, testing, and verifying model-based methods.