DTI Basic Phantom

The DTI Single Strand phantom [1] consists of a cylindrical plastic spindle (left, white spindle) with a groove of square cross-section (left, blue area). A polyester thread is wound onto the spindle filling the grooves. Between the fibers water is embedded. This way, the restricted anisotropic diffusion in white matter of the brain is mimicked.

Standard Version

Technical specifications

  • Cylindrical phantom container: Diameter: 150 mm, High: 150 mm
  • Fiber strand cross-section: 10 x 10 mm2
  • Outer Diameter of the spindle / fiber strand: 60 mm
  • Fractional Anisotropy: 0.8

Customer-specific modifications

  • FA (coming soon)
  • Size of the phantom container
  • Size of the spindle
  • Cross-section of the fiber strand

Application examples

check-1 Ground truth for validation of DTI sequences and post-processing pipelines
check-1 Quality assurance in clinical studies, multi-center studies [4-6]
check-1 Validation of advanced DTI methods and development of new reconstruction algorithms, e.g. for diffusion kurtosis imaging [3]
check-1 Investigation of DTI-typical artifacts and the influence of acquisition parameters [2] on the measured values for ADC and FA
check-1 Comparison between different MR scanners and software versions
check-1 Teaching

User reference

„We have been using 35 DTI phantoms at 35 research sites in our pan-European center-TBI study (see www.center-tbi.eu), which is focused on the DTI-based investgation of traumatic brain injuries. The phantoms have served us extremely well and allowed for a true quantitative quality control management for this complex technique, which could not have been performed without them.“

Dr. Pim PullensHead of quality management program of the pan-European center-TBI study

References: scientific articles

1.

On the effects of dephasing due to local gradients in diffusion tensor imaging experiments: relevance for diffusion tensor imaging fiber phantoms.

Laun FB, Huff S, Stieltjes B. Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2009;27(4):541-548.
2.

How background noise shifts eigenvectors and increases eigenvalues in DTI.

Laun FB, Schad LR, Klein J, Stieltjes B. MAGMA 2009;22(3):151-158.
3.

Advanced fit of the diffusion kurtosis tensor by directional weighting and regularization.

Kuder TA, Stieltjes B, Bachert P, Semmler W, Laun F. Magn Reson Med 2012 May;67(5):1401-11.
4.

Longitudinal changes in fiber tract integrity in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment: a DTI follow-up study.

Teipel SJ et al.J Alzheimers Dis. 2010;22(2):507-22.
5.

Multicenter stability of diffusion tensor imaging measures: a European clinical and physical phantom study.

Teipel SJ et al.Psychiatry Res. 2011;194(3):363-71.
6.

Repeatability and variation of region-of-interest methods using quantitative diffusion tensor MR imaging of the brain.

Hakulinen U et al.BMC Med Imaging. 2012;12:30.