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A two-compartment gel phantom for optimization and quality assurance in clinical BOLD fMRI

Olsrud, Johan LU ; Nilsson, Anders LU ; Mannfolk, Peter LU ; Waites, Anthony and Ståhlberg, Freddy LU (2008) In Magnetic Resonance Imaging 26(2). p.279-286
Abstract
Clinical applications of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) depend heavily on robust paradigms, imaging methods and analysis procedures. In this work, as a means to optimize and perform quality assurance of the entire imaging and analysis chain, a phantom that provides a well known and reproducible signal change similar to a block type fMRI experiment is presented. It consists of two gel compartments with slightly different T(2) that dynamically enter and leave the imaged volume. The homogeneous gel in combination with a cylindrical geometry results in a well-defined T(2) difference causing a signal difference between the two compartments in T(2)-weighted MR images. From time series data... (More)
Clinical applications of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) depend heavily on robust paradigms, imaging methods and analysis procedures. In this work, as a means to optimize and perform quality assurance of the entire imaging and analysis chain, a phantom that provides a well known and reproducible signal change similar to a block type fMRI experiment is presented. It consists of two gel compartments with slightly different T(2) that dynamically enter and leave the imaged volume. The homogeneous gel in combination with a cylindrical geometry results in a well-defined T(2) difference causing a signal difference between the two compartments in T(2)-weighted MR images. From time series data obtained with the phantom, maps of percent signal change (PSC) and t-values are calculated. As an example of image parameter optimisation, the phantom is demonstrated to be useful for accurate determination of the influence of echo time (TE) on BOLD fMRI results, taking the t-value as a measure of sensitivity. In addition, the phantom is proposed as a tool for quality assurance (QA) since reproducible time series and t-maps are obtained in a series of independent repeat experiments. The phantom is relatively simple to build and can therefore be used by any clinical fMRI center. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Phantom, Agarose gel, BOLD, Optimization, fMRI
in
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
volume
26
issue
2
pages
279 - 286
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:17728091
  • wos:000253225700016
  • scopus:38349146109
ISSN
1873-5894
DOI
10.1016/j.mri.2007.06.010
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5fa1911a-e973-4be5-899c-547d2b12c552 (old id 1139641)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:16:35
date last changed
2022-04-13 08:44:09
@article{5fa1911a-e973-4be5-899c-547d2b12c552,
  abstract     = {{Clinical applications of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) depend heavily on robust paradigms, imaging methods and analysis procedures. In this work, as a means to optimize and perform quality assurance of the entire imaging and analysis chain, a phantom that provides a well known and reproducible signal change similar to a block type fMRI experiment is presented. It consists of two gel compartments with slightly different T(2) that dynamically enter and leave the imaged volume. The homogeneous gel in combination with a cylindrical geometry results in a well-defined T(2) difference causing a signal difference between the two compartments in T(2)-weighted MR images. From time series data obtained with the phantom, maps of percent signal change (PSC) and t-values are calculated. As an example of image parameter optimisation, the phantom is demonstrated to be useful for accurate determination of the influence of echo time (TE) on BOLD fMRI results, taking the t-value as a measure of sensitivity. In addition, the phantom is proposed as a tool for quality assurance (QA) since reproducible time series and t-maps are obtained in a series of independent repeat experiments. The phantom is relatively simple to build and can therefore be used by any clinical fMRI center.}},
  author       = {{Olsrud, Johan and Nilsson, Anders and Mannfolk, Peter and Waites, Anthony and Ståhlberg, Freddy}},
  issn         = {{1873-5894}},
  keywords     = {{Phantom; Agarose gel; BOLD; Optimization; fMRI}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{279--286}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Magnetic Resonance Imaging}},
  title        = {{A two-compartment gel phantom for optimization and quality assurance in clinical BOLD fMRI}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mri.2007.06.010}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.mri.2007.06.010}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}