MRI phantom

Presentation

This project, part of the VivaBrain project (ANR-12-MONU-0010), was done during the CEMRACS 2015, especially in the PHANTOM project.

The aim of the ViavBrain project is to provide a validation loop from MRA (magnetic resonance angiography) acquisitions to MRA simulations, see Figure 1. It is composed of MR images filtering and/or segmentation, blood flow simulation and MRA simuation.

VivaBrain
Figure 1. VivaBrain loop.

In order to validate all points of the VivaBrain loop, we firstly use an MRI phantom, Figure 2

physical phantom
Figure 2. MRI phantom

An MRI phantom is an MRI compatible object (no metal!) that can be placed in the magnetic field of the MRI machine. Typically, a benchmark such as Figure 3 is realized.

MRI benchmark
Figure 3. MRI phantom benchmark schema

Simulation

The FreeFem++ algorithm used in this siumation is the unsteady Navier-Stokes Uzawa algorithm with the phantom mesh.

A constant flow is imposed at the inlet of the phantom, a null velocity on the wall and the outlet is free.

Result is shows Figure 4 where pressure field is displayed on the wall and velocity is displayed using stream lines.

Result
Figure 4. MRI phantom benchmark result
A complete study about this MRI phantom will be available soon in the ESAIM Proceedings and Surveys as a CEMRACS proceedings. A first presentation of this project is available on Hal