Stability and Measurement Variability of a Cardiac T1 and T2 Relaxometry Phantom

Motivation: Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) parametric mapping is the gold standard for assessment of myocarditis and critical for multiple other types of acquired and congenital heart disease. Measurement drift over time can introduce bias, and parametric mapping guidelines suggest monitoring drift with a phantom; commercial phantoms are costly and have limited availability. Goal(s): To measure custom-built phantom multi-site temporal stability and measurement variation. Approach: We investigated the stability and measurement variation of manganese-chloride solution cardiac phantom T2 and T1 at multiple sites with different scanners/field-strengths. Results: We observed excellent stability for physiologically relevant phantom T2 and T1 measurements at sites for 15 months. Impact: Our preliminary results show that the designed phantom appears stable up to 15 months and allows quantification of measurement variation at different sites.