A Novel MRI-Compatible Brain Ventricle Phantom for
Validation of Segmentation and Volumetry Methods
Amanda F. Khan, John J. Drozd, Robert K. Moreland, Michael J. Borrie and Robert Bartha for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
Overview
Brain lateralventricle volume, as measured by image segmentation, is an objective measure of disease progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We created a standardized, MRI-compatible life-size phantom of the brain ventricles to evaluate ventricle segmentation methods utilizing T1-weighted MRI and have made the 3T MRI images public as a means for other groups to test their segmentation algorithms on a standard set of MRI images of a gold-standard phantom.
How the Phantom was Created
A ventricle model was constructed from polycarbonate using a digital mesh of the ventricles created from a 3T MRI of a
subject with AD. The ventricle was placed in a brain mold and surrounded with
material composed of 2% agar in water, 0.01% NaCl and 0.0375 mM gadopentetate dimeglumine
to match the signal intensity properties of brain tissue in 3T T1-weighted
MRI. T1-weighted images of the phantom were acquired at 3T and ventricle
segmentation software was used to measure ventricle volume.
Photographs, MRI Images and 3D Reconstruction of the Phantom Results of the Phantom Creation The images acquired of the phantom
successfully replicated in-vivo
signal intensity differences between the ventricle and surrounding tissue in T1-weighted
MRI and were robust to segmentation. The ventricle volume was quantified to 99.1% accuracy at 1 mm voxel size with our in--house software program. 3T MRI Images of the Phantom in DICOM Format (in .zip folder) Phantom images in DICOM format - Slice thicknesses ranging from 1.0mm to 5.0mm Last edited by: Amanda Khan, August 30th, 6:16pm for Dr. Robert Bartha
