Brain Phantom for Low-Field MRI Applications

Low-field (LF) MRI is a recent, ground-breaking advancement in the MRI field that allows access to MRI in low-resource areas of the world. The project aimed to build a brain phantom to test the feasibility of LF MRI systems specifically for measuring blood flow in the brain. The anatomical components include a model brain phantom with key vasculature of interest stemming from the internal carotid arteries. To create vascular flow through the model, an external pump powers model blood through the phantom for dynamic testing of LF MRI. Industry solutions currently exist for independently testing the two main components of our design, those for vascular modeling and phantoms specific to the brain's anatomy [source]. The combination of these two is not currently marketed, especially as a low-cost application. The design’s combination of both functionalities while maintaining a low budget will allow for advances in all MRI ranges and increase the potential for imaging access in developing portions of the world.