title: Novel spherical phantoms for Q-ball imaging under in vivo conditions.
abstract: For the validation of complex diffusion imaging techniques like q-ball imaging that aim to resolve multiple fiber directions, appropriate phantoms are highly desirable. However, previous q-ball imaging phantoms had diffusion anisotropies well below those of in vivo white matter. In this work, fiber phantoms of well-defined geometry are presented. The fibers are wound on a spherical spindle yielding high packing densities and consequently high diffusion anisotropies (fractional anisotropy 0.93 ± 0.02 at b = 500 s/mm(2)). Phantoms with 90° and 45° crossing angle were constructed both with two crossing types. In the "stacked" crossing, two fiber strings were wound consecutively to simulate two touching fibers, in the "interleaved" crossing, fibers were wound alternately. The stacked crossing allows the alteration of partial volumes, whereas the interleaved crossing provides constant partial volumes, allowing e.g. the easy alteration of the SNR by varying the slice thickness. Exemplary q-ball imaging validation measurements using different b-values and slice thicknesses are presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moussavi-Biugui
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stieltjes
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fritzsche
authors.forename: Wolfhard
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Semmler
authors.forename: Frederik B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Laun
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity