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Bone material analogues for PET/MRI phantoms
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Bone material analogues for PET/MRI phantoms

Dharshan Chandramohan, Peng Cao, Misung Han, Hongyu An, John J. Sunderland, Paul E. Kinahan, Richard Laforest, Thomas A. Hope and Peder E. Z. Larson
Medical physics (Lancaster), Vol.47(5), pp.2161-2170
06/01/2020
DOI: 10.1002/mp.14079
PMCID: PMC7901472
PMID: 32034945
url
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1910.11315View
Open Access

Abstract

Purpose To develop bone material analogues that can be used in construction of phantoms for simultaneous PET/MRI systems. Methods Plaster was used as the basis for the bone material analogues tested in this study. It was mixed with varying concentrations of an iodinated CT contrast, a gadolinium-based MR contrast agent, and copper sulfate to modulate the attenuation properties and MRI properties (T1 and T2*). Attenuation was measured with CT and Ge-68 transmission scans, and MRI properties were measured with quantitative ultrashort echo time pulse sequences. A proof-of-concept skull was created by plaster casting. Results Undoped plaster has a 511 keV attenuation coefficient (~0.14 cm(-1)) similar to cortical bone (0.10-0.15 cm(-1)), but slightly longer T1 (~500 ms) and T2* (~1.2 ms) MR parameters compared to bone (T1 ~ 300 ms, T2* ~ 0.4 ms). Doping with the iodinated agent resulted in increased attenuation with minimal perturbation to the MR parameters. Doping with a gadolinium chelate greatly reduced T1 and T2*, resulting in extremely short T1 values when the target T2* values were reached, while the attenuation coefficient was unchanged. Doping with copper sulfate was more selective for T2* shortening and achieved comparable T1 and T2* values to bone (after 1 week of drying), while the attenuation coefficient was unchanged. Conclusions Plaster doped with copper sulfate is a promising bone material analogue for a PET/MRI phantom, mimicking the MR properties (T1 and T2*) and 511 keV attenuation coefficient of human cortical bone.
Life Sciences & Biomedicine Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging Science & Technology

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