Development of a realistic MRI phantom to mimic static and dynamic B0 field inhomogeneities in the human cervical spinal cord

Motivation: Spinal cord imaging is affected by static and dynamic B0 field inhomogeneities, which reduce image quality. Homogeneous phantoms fail to reproduce these effects. Goal(s): Build an anthropomorphic phantom of the cervical spine to mimic the field inhomogeneities encountered in vivo. Such a phantom can aid developing advanced acquisition and correction techniques. Approach: We 3D-printed segmented vertebrae and placed them inside a head/neck phantom shell to reproduce the static inhomogeneities. Dynamic inhomogeneities were generated by periodically moving metal staples along the phantom surface. Results: Static inhomogeneities were replicated with approximatively one third of the intensity encountered in vivo. The dynamic fluctuations were accurately replicated. Impact: Static and dynamic B0 field inhomogeneities are among the main challenges in spinal cord imaging, causing signal loss, distortion and ghosting. An anthropomorphic phantom reproducing the fields could aid development of advanced acquisition and correction techniques to mitigate these artifacts.