Abstract
Grey and white matter mimicking phantoms are important for assessing variations in diffusion MR measures at a single time point and over an extended period of time. This work investigates the stability of brain-mimicking microfibre phantoms and reproducibility of their MR derived diffusion parameters. The microfibres were produced by co-electrospinning and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Grey matter and white matter phantoms were constructed from random and aligned microfibres, respectively. MR data were acquired from these phantoms over a period of 33 months. SEM images revealed that only small changes in fibre microstructure occurred over 30 months. The coefficient of variation in MR measurements across all time-points was between 1.6% and 3.4% for MD across all phantoms and FA in white matter phantoms. This was within the limits expected for intra-scanner variability, thereby confirming phantom stability over 33 months. These specialised diffusion phantoms may be used in a clinical environment for intra and inter-site quality assurance purposes, and for validation of quantitative diffusion biomarkers.
Highlights
The routine use of diffusion MRI sequences in the clinic, and of more advanced diffusion sequences in a research environment, have led to a need for developing specialist phantoms with known geometry and microstructural characteristics for quality assurance purposes (Barnes et al, 2017)
The microstructure of coelectrospun PCL fibres remained visibly intact in cyclohexane over a period of 1 week (Zhou et al, 2012) and the coefficient of variation (CV) for the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of a cardiac-mimicking PCL fibres phantom filled with cyclohexane were found to be 2.07% and 1.67% over the 4 month period (Teh et al, 2016)
This paper evaluates the stability of cyclohexane-filled PCL phantoms as brain-mimicking structures using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) over 30 months and diffusion MRI measurement reproducibility over 33 months
Summary
The routine use of diffusion MRI sequences in the clinic, and of more advanced diffusion sequences in a research environment, have led to a need for developing specialist phantoms with known geometry and microstructural characteristics for quality assurance purposes (Barnes et al, 2017) The importance of such specialist phantoms lies in analysing the variability of acquired data from different scanners ( for multi-centre studies), in assessing the long-term stability of scanners ( for longitudinal studies and clinical quantitative imaging) and in providing a ground truth for methods designed to provide quantitative measures of tissue microstructure. Recent studies have reported a novel type of brain and cardiac phantom designed from electrospun hollow polycaprolactone (PCL) hollow microfibers infused with cyclohexane These phantoms demonstrated suitable tissue-mimicking properties and were successfully used for the validation of diffusion MRI (Hubbard et al, 2015; Teh et al, 2016; Ye et al, 2014; Zhou et al, 2015, 2012). The microstructure of coelectrospun PCL fibres remained visibly intact in cyclohexane over a period of 1 week (Zhou et al, 2012) and the coefficient of variation (CV) for the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and FA of a cardiac-mimicking PCL fibres phantom filled with cyclohexane were found to be 2.07% and 1.67% over the 4 month period (Teh et al, 2016)
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