Establishing absolute temperature scale and diffusion metrics in PVP phantoms for cross-center standardization

Clinical acceptance of quantitative diffusion MRI faces difficulties due to lack of standardization. Quality control across platforms and centers is vital for multicenter efforts. Polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) phantoms provide excellent properties suitable for cross-center validation. However, diffusion metrics vary with temperature. Measuring phantom temperature along with diffusion metrics is necessary. Spectroscopic temperature mapping of the PVP phantom and ADC values were investigated on two different vendor platforms. It is shown that the water peak moves relative to easily identifiable stable peaks in PVP allowing intrinsic temperature measurement. Excellent agreement for temperature and ADC mapping across both platforms should make cross-site standardization possible.