Development of a cross-modality tissue-mimicking and anatomic mimicking Fetal Phantom to improve image based fetus assessment

Motivation: Fetal MRI necessitates extra care due to inherent safety concerns, complicating the optimization of MRI protocols and calibration with ultrasound assessments. Goal(s): To mitigate the aforementioned safety problems, we aim to create a cross-modality, tissue-mimicking, anatomically correct fetal phantom. Approach: We designed a fetus phantom encapsulated within a natural rubber balloon filled with mimicking amniotic fluid, creating an amniotic sac analogue. This design utilized varying compositions of agarose, gadolinium, and gelatin to replicate different fetal organs with distinct T1 and T2 values. Results: The developed phantom comprises various fetal organs and relaxation times, enabling precise fetal biometric comparisons between MRI and ultrasound modalities. Impact: With the help of the developped cross-modality, tissue-mimicking and anatomical mimicking fetus phantom, the aforementioned constraints on fetal MR protocol optimization and calibration between different MR and ultrasound should be relaxed.