TY - JOUR
T1 - Use of capillaries in the construction of an MRI phantom for the assessment of diffusion tensor imaging
T2 - demonstration of performance
AU - Yanasak, Nathan Eugene
AU - Allison, Jerry David
PY - 2006/12/1
Y1 - 2006/12/1
N2 - Although diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) shows great potential for the diagnosis of a variety of pathologies, no consensus for an appropriate assessment standard of DTI exists. This study examined the feasibility of using water-filled arrays of glass capillaries to construct a DTI phantom suitable for making repeated and reproducible measurements required in a quality assessment program. Three phantoms were constructed using arrays of capillaries with three inner diameters (23, 48, and 82 μm). Data were acquired using DTI protocols; the fractional anisotropy (FA), mean apparent diffusion coefficient (〈ADC〉) and principal eigenvectors of the diffusion tensors were calculated. This study demonstrated four results: (1) echo-planar images show that susceptibility within the capillary arrays does not lead to substantial differences in precessional frequency in regions containing the arrays and neither do the regions show noticeable image distortion; (2) principal eigenvectors of the diffusion tensors agree to within <10.3° of the array orientations; (3) mean FA values (0.18-0.50) and 〈ADC〉 values (1.40-1.93×10-3 mm2/s) within specified regions of interest are in general agreement with simulations after a simple noise correction; and (4) these array performance characteristics are observable using a typical clinical DTI protocol.
AB - Although diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) shows great potential for the diagnosis of a variety of pathologies, no consensus for an appropriate assessment standard of DTI exists. This study examined the feasibility of using water-filled arrays of glass capillaries to construct a DTI phantom suitable for making repeated and reproducible measurements required in a quality assessment program. Three phantoms were constructed using arrays of capillaries with three inner diameters (23, 48, and 82 μm). Data were acquired using DTI protocols; the fractional anisotropy (FA), mean apparent diffusion coefficient (〈ADC〉) and principal eigenvectors of the diffusion tensors were calculated. This study demonstrated four results: (1) echo-planar images show that susceptibility within the capillary arrays does not lead to substantial differences in precessional frequency in regions containing the arrays and neither do the regions show noticeable image distortion; (2) principal eigenvectors of the diffusion tensors agree to within <10.3° of the array orientations; (3) mean FA values (0.18-0.50) and 〈ADC〉 values (1.40-1.93×10-3 mm2/s) within specified regions of interest are in general agreement with simulations after a simple noise correction; and (4) these array performance characteristics are observable using a typical clinical DTI protocol.
KW - Anisotropy
KW - Diffusion
KW - MRI
KW - Phantom
KW - Tensor
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=37349006447&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.mri.2006.08.001
DO - 10.1016/j.mri.2006.08.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 17145407
AN - SCOPUS:37349006447
VL - 24
SP - 1349
EP - 1361
JO - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
JF - Magnetic Resonance Imaging
SN - 0730-725X
IS - 10
ER -