Physiologic motion phantom for MRI applications.

To address the need for a complex physiologic motion phantom for use in MR applications, such as the verification of techniques for measuring myocardial motion dynamics and motion insensitive pulse sequences, a computer-controlled motion phantom has been designed. The phantom, which consists of a deformable silicone gel annulus mounted on a translation stage, can undergo a range of bulk motions and deformations. Available motions include bulk rotation and translation, rotational shear, axial shear, and combinations of some or all of these motions. In this paper, the capability of the phantom to produce accurate constant and time-varying waveforms is demonstrated. In the current implementation, peak linear translation and rotation rates are 175 mm s-1 and 10 rad s-1, respectively. Cycle-to-cycle reproducibility is excellent, with variations of less than .003 radians over the period of hours while undergoing rotational shear. The phantom has been designed in a flexible fashion so that various test objects can be scanned while undergoing bulk translation and can be adapted to produce different deformations.