Development of Cervical Spine Mimicking Phantom for Diffusion MRI Near Metal

Motivation: Diffusion-MRI (dMRI) is increasingly used to evaluate neurological disorders and injuries of the spinal cord. Unfortunately, high-quality dMRI for post-surgical evaluation of the spinal cord is often limited due to the distortion artifacts from metal implants. Goal(s): The goal of this work is to assist in the development of novel imaging protocols to overcome this challenge. Approach: To do this, a cervical spine phantom was developed to replicate the spine’s geometric and MRI properties along with the image artifacts generated from metal implants. Results: Preliminary data demonstrated that the model is helpful for visualizing and developing novel dMRI protocols near metal implants. Impact: The proposed cervical spine phantom, designed to characterize the dMRI performance of the spinal cord post-surgery, including artifacts from metallic implants, is potentially helpful for developing novel imaging techniques for post-surgical spinal cord injuries.