Development of numerical phantom converting from electron microscopic analysis to multi-component water fraction for MRI simulator.

Motivation: To improve the accuracy of myelin water fraction (MWF) calculations.Goal(s): To develop multi-component phantom for MRI simulators and to validate the accuracy depending on pulse sequences and imaging parameter settings. Approach: First, five different electron micrographs of the normal central nervous system (CNS) were divided into two regions (my and ax/ie), and the percentage of each component was calculated. Second, each proton density (PD) was set as a percentage of the divided area. Results: We developed multi-component water phantom and could demonstrate the SPGR signal variations to B0 inhomogeneity on an MRI simulator using our multi-component water fraction phantom. Impact: Our multi-component phantom derived from electron microscopic analysis may be useful to evaluate the differences in MWF values between each signal model, e.g., qMT and mcDESPOT.