Hydrogel-based quantitative multi-parametric MRI phantom with controlled T2, diffusion and kurtosis

A set of materials with tunable T2, diffusion, and kurtosis were assembled to create quantitative biomimetic MRI phantoms. T2 is controlled with variable agarose concentration, mono-exponential diffusion by polyvinylpyrrolidone, and kurtosis by addition of lamellar vesicles. The phantoms are mechanically stabilized by polyacrylamide gels to allow biomimetic morphologies. These nanostructured systems provide an ideal platform for moldable multiparametric MRI phantoms that are useful for pulse sequence design and protocol standardization for multi-site multi-vendor imaging trials, as well as for refinement of emerging AI analysis methods.