ANTHROPOMORPHIC, X-RAY AND DYNAMIC CONTRAST-ENHANCED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING PHANTOM FOR QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF BREAST IMAGING TECHNIQUES

摘要

Anthropomorphic breast phantoms comprise a combination of adipose tissue mimicking components and fibroglandular tissue mimicking components. Typically, x-ray attenuation coefficients or magnetic resonance relaxation times Ύι and T2 are selected that are sufficiently similar to actual patient tissues. The mimicking components are distributed within the phantom such that images of the phantom contain features similar to those of patient tissues. A breast phantom can be based on a lard/egg white combination that is shaped to approximate a human breast, or a compressed human breast as prepared for mammography. The phantoms can include lesion chambers that permit the introduction of contrast agents to simulate benign or malignant lesions, and contrast agent concentration can be time varied to produce washout curves.