Multi-modality Quantitative Phantom for Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography Measurements of Steatotic Liver Disease

The overall goal of this proposal is to design, develop, and test a multi-modality imaging test object (“phantom”) for quality assurance (QA) of liver fat concentration measurements by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and photon counting CT (PCCT). A quantitative CT/MRI fat phantom needs to mimic the CT and MRI signals of liver tissue across the clinically relevant range of 0-50% fat-fraction. Specifically, the proposed phantom must mimic the relationship between CT attenuation and fat-fraction observed in human liver and must replicate the critical MRI properties of liver, including MRI spectrum and relaxation properties. A phantom that could serve as a reference standard for both MRI and CT would facilitate harmonization, ie: direct comparison of data acquired using these two prevalent imaging modalities. Cross-modality consistency is needed in clinical practice for longitudinal monitoring of patients who undergo MRI and CT over time, on multiple vendor platforms, and for multi-site research studies.