Background: The paper covers modern approaches to the evaluation of neoplastic processes with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and proposes a physical model for monitoring the primary quantitative parameters of DWI and quality assurance. Models of hindered and restricted diffusion are studied.
Material and method: To simulate hindered diffusion, we used aqueous solutions of polyvinylpyrrolidone with concentrations of 0 to 70%. We created siloxane-based water-in-oil emulsions that simulate restricted diffusion in the intracellular space. To obtain a high signal on DWI in the broadest range of b values, we used silicon oil with high T2: cyclomethicone and caprylyl methicone. For quantitative assessment of our phantom, we performed DWI on 1.5T magnetic resonance scanner with various fat suppression techniques. We assessed water-in-oil emulsion as an extracorporeal source signal by simultaneously scanning a patient in whole-body DWI sequence.
Results: We developed phantom with control substances for apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements ranging from normal tissue to benign and malignant lesions: from 2.29 to 0.28 mm2/s. The ADC values of polymer solutions are well relevant to the mono-exponential equation with the mean relative difference of 0.91%.
Conclusion: The phantom can be used to assess the accuracy of the ADC measurements, as well as the effectiveness of fat suppression. The control substances (emulsions) can be used as a body marker for quality assurance in whole-body DWI with a wide range of b values.
Keywords: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging; Emulsion; Imaging phantom; Magnetic resonance imaging; Water diffusion.